Why Do I Want To Stay In The Philippines?

Its a common mindset for Filipinos to want leave the country to work overseas for higher pay.

Since Filipinos are service oriented we took advantage of this by having our people work for expat packages or sending workers to places with a significantly higher pay.

Filipinos have been doing this for a long time and is getting better at it so it’s pretty common these da.

The only annoying thing is people ask me often why I haven’t gone on to this trend. Aside from the fact that I won’t leave my family to work somewhere else, is that I am confident that I am capable of working and living from anywhere and I prefer to work here at home (The Philippines).

If you’re from a different country and you want to move, live, or retire in the Philippines, I understand why you want to do so. Filipino’s might require a lot of explanation  for this so I prepared some.

Here are my reasons:

• People - I'm attached to the people. I'm familiar with how Filipinos act. We are not perfect and have a mix of good and bad traits. It needs improvement but I'm so familiar with it that I can live with it as it develops slowly and make the most of it at the same time.  Filipinos value family and relationships and God (which means that the conscience may be involved most of the time with the decision-making) . Filipinos are naturally friendly and hospitable.
• Places - The Philippines has 7,100 islands and I haven't seen all of them I've only been to 3 (Luzon, Boracay and Pamana Island somewhere in Subic) and that's it. I would like to explore more of the Philippines. Did you know that it doesn't cost a lot to travel here in the Philippines? From Manila you can get anywhere for less than $100
• Simplicity - Living in the Philippines is not really complicated. You have a source of income, you cook or buy food, you go out to see places stay at home, take care of your family for fun. You can live in the Philippines for less than $300 if you're single and less than $800 if you have a small family.
• Opportunity - Now we're on to the business part. I know that there are a lot and I know that you know that the Philippines is rich in natural resources and tourist spots and all but I would like to focus on 2 opportunities in the Philippines that I like. First is that Filipino's are good workers. In fact the Filipino's are world famous for the service industry. Second is that although Filipinos have the potential to be the best salespeople/entrepreneurs in the world because of our ability to build relationships Filipinos are mostly shy and would prefer to buy instead of sell. Filipinos like freebies and are not shy about asking for it (which is actually another opportunity). This means that more opportunities for business are up for grabs here especially in the niche and high end markets.
• Contribution - When you make money where do you spend it? Sure I would like to help the starving kids in Africa. However I would like to feed the starving kids in my hometown first. You know, the ones I see everyday. Take care of them, send them to school, groom them to be profitable then in a few years have an army to feed the starving kids in the world. I even wrote minimal changes so I can inspire others to live a better life so we can inspire more people all over the world to do good and to do the right thing all the time.
• Sustainability - I've said this many times already. Staying in the Philippines doesn't cost much. Local products are cheap. Service is cheap. We don't like to sell but if we ever have to we sell things cheap, which explains why everything is cheap here.

So there you have it. Have a reaction? Know more reasons? Leave some in the comments below.

Written on November 18th, 2010 by Kevin Olega