In the Philippines, there are really no despedidas for our come-backing viajeras whose refrigerator-sized suitcases constantly introduce into our bazaars the booties and bounties of foreign goods – and logically, of the craft and creativity of their respective cultures. Heck, even the most recent replicas of every conceivable brand item churned out by the pirate mills of Shanghai or Mumbai (formerly Bombay) are readily available in every flea market in the country – all to be innovated upon by the enterprising natives.
Thanks to budget airfares, our viajeras can lay stake to the crown of being world-class shoppers and vicarious transferors of technique or technology. They have truly contributed to the shrinking of the world to the size of our shoestring budgets as proven by our triumphant weekend rummages and purchases at the nearest flea markets. Alas, our viajeras have become the living descendants of the Galleon Trade who pass secondhand ideas to be reborn locally into new products.
And then, there are the all-too familiar tales of traveling for the greenback’s sake and for the grassy taste of greener pastures overseas. There is the rural farmer who mortgages his carabao for a ticket to the Middle East where he squeezes blood, sweat and tears so that his dirt-poor family in the province could either savor or slosh at the "Katas ng Saudi" – usually, a tricycle, a jeepney or an eatery that generates more economic activity.
Consider, too, the value of the vagabondage of our growing army of guerilla GROs. After stalking every haunt of the Lust Triangle – the Timog, T. Morato and Quezon Ave. area – and making a small fortune in the process, they forego their dream visit to Vicky Bello, bid sayonara to Metro Manila and yield to their yearning for yen, reinventing themselves as warbling geishas in the trendiest videoke bars in Tokyo.
Work-worn Japan just can’t say enough arigatos to our japayukis while the japayukis’ extended families back home sleep more soundly on their backs featherbedded with layers of lapad. This, while the country benefits from her unlikely ambassadresses of goodwill in whose entertainment skills the Nippons start entertaining the idea of touring or investing in the Philippines.
Educated professionals are no exceptions. Whether they go on occupational-slumming or going into offbeat careers are unconcerned about underemployment – such as working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong, caregivers in Canada or diaper-changers of septuagenarians in the United States – the Filipinos’ vast energy for industry and vaster reservoir of equanimity gives them the comparative advantage in overseas employment.
It’s the attitude not the aptitude that normally determines the Filipino’s altitude above other migrant races in the global rat race. Ironically, every Pinoy who travels for work abroad has a better coping mechanism to beat the boredom and to blast the blues.
Knowing that time spent overseas is time weighed in gold, Filipinos have built a reputation for taking on as many jobs as there are days in a week – and as there are days left in their visas. There is simply no time for the lazy Pilipino time and so the energy for overtime goes on an overdrive.
And the Filipino attitude on traveling for work or business has indeed changed. In this day and age, it’s no longer sinful or unpatriotic for the average Filipino to be bitten by the travel bug. There’s hardly any soreness to the sole or soul involved and one considers blest if actually bitten by the pest.
It’s a wicked wanderlust alright that is no longer a small wonder for Filipinos. Unlike two generations ago when every pseudo-nationalist intellectual would cry brain drain or scream dollar-salting every time a Filipino flies off to foreign shores, every stamp on one’s passport symbolizes a Pinoy’s broadening of his horizons and, almost certainly, his bank account. Much of the parochial crab mentality that frowns upon breaching the country’s borders have subsided in favor of discovering the continents, and profiting from the same in terms of experience or career-advancement.
After all, the Philippines is never left behind by the Pinoy peregrine. The eight-million-strong Filipino diaspora thriving in almost all parts of the planet – excluding perhaps Antarctica – brings to mind the expansion and export of our race and our culture overseas. Our salute in absentia of the OFWs is a testament to how we take pride in staking our every flag in every foreign soil and in the thought that our economy is afloat because every Filipino who leaves is almost surely coming back with the Pinoy Marco Polo’s balikbayan boxes full of new thoughts and new riches one can gather from beyond our shores.