The Philippine Online Chronicles

In my previous apparition (before I migrated), I worked for a big government bank in Makati. Big bank, 26 branches nationwide at the time, with more than 5,000 officers and employees. I worked in the Head Office, originally at the Escolta, then moved to Buendia, Makati when the Bel Air side was still all cogon grass, just after the Ruby Towers earthquake in 1968. Worked there through martial law and the Revolution, then left under the first Early Retirement program when all the big government banks began downsizing.

The background is just to highlight how steeped I was in the office culture that my own generation, the guilt-ridden baby boomers, developed and left as legacy to today’s callow youth.

Now we oldies but goodies are mostly retired and what do retired people do? They go facebooking.

An old friend ran with an idea and organized an F/B group exclusively for alumni of our old Bank. A few of us came aboard in the first week. The originals spread the word and drew their F/B friends from their old work units and divisions (now mostly hibernating in New Jersey, West Covina and Sydney, etc). In three months the group had grown to around 400 and counting.

Somebody posted a photo of our old building at the corner of what used to be Buendia and Makati Avenues. Comments rained on the post and old memories (some urban legends, too) associated with the old building were traced, shared and dissected. Turned out we all were fond of the old turo-turo carinderia shed in the carpark abutting the Mandarin carpark. And of course, we all played the where-are-they-now (buhay pa ba si ???) recollection and update game.

Only one degree of separation from reminiscing about things we used to do in our spare time: the Glee Club, the pelota club (is that still played nowadays?), the inter-department volleyball and basketball tournaments, the inter-government office bowling competition -and from there to the one time special event attendances: the dance presentations for visiting dignitaries, the Kasaysayan ng Lahi march, the parade for the Miss Universe contestants, for the IMF-IBRD conference, for the visiting American president, etc.

For us expats specially, the past is not just a different country and a different time. It’s a different life altogether.

Take the office paluwagan scheme for instance. So simple in principle and in execution and so difficult to explain to Westerners. Paluwagan. The word inevitably draws snickers and sleazy comments but the idea is basic (group savings for the benefit of individual scheme members) and popular in every office that employs long term employees. My Western friends just can’t see the point. I tell them it’s a way of raising funding for a major expenditure without having to pay interest but all I get are blank looks. Never mind.Filipinas at the local Taxation Office have got their own paluwagan thing off and running.Why not. It’s an honor thing and it’s Pinoy. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.

And there’s the paiyakan purchase system. Breathes there the Pinoy office employee with at least one article of jewellery (ring and earring set, matched necklace and pendant set, etc) not bought from the itinerant office alahera? What a uniquely Noypi independent black market strategy. Our office building in Makati was about 12 storeys high and later expanded to two five-storey buildings on the other side of Buendia. There were maybe 800 to 900 personnel in this office complex. And there were just two lady jewelers who visited everyday. Usually just before afternoon tea. As people rushed off to merienda, they would open attaché cases and spread the merchandise on a convenient desk. A necklace would catch your eye. You’d hold it up to the light, pretending a knowledge of jewellery you didn’t really have. How many carats? How much? Kamahal naman, puwedeng tumawad? 8 months to pay, ha? Kung anuman, tapusin ko sa Christmas bonus, OK?

That was the way it was. In our office, you never had to step outside really, to buy stuff.

The cigarette vendors in the car park were legendary – they knew everybody and they knew all the gossip. They even knew promotions before they were officially announced. But it wasn’t just cigarettes and candies and chewing gum you could buy at work. Rice in kilo bags. Longganiza and tocino by the package. May maghahatid sa mesa mo. Make-up and cosmetics. cologne, perfume, chocolate bars, car accessories, Marikina shoes, sunglasses, insurance, memorial park lots, subdivision lots – if not your own officemate, then your officemate’s wife, hipag or kumadre would talk to you about it. In the building across from our Buendia office, an enterprising cobbler set up shop just around the elevators: leave your shoes, ma’am, and pick them up at noon break.

What’s not to like about the culture? I must admit, on a couple of occasions that I was pressed for time, I had a manicurist in whilst dictating correspondence, taking phone callsand initialing various paperwork with the other hand. Nice, ha? Or maybe not.

Well, they’re very modern over here. There’s more decorum, more propriety. They don’t buy cigarettes two sticks at a time. (In fact, they’d rather you didn’t buy cigarettes at all but that’s another story). None of our tingi-tingi mentality would impress people here; makes me homesick sometimes. They do have car boot sales at selected times of the year and there’s Sunday craft fairs but personal jewellery … jewellery you buy from a licensed jeweler.Hulugan? Paiyakan? You’re kidding me, man.

Rolando A. Lampa

Melbourne, Australia

1 October 2011

Photo: “man ray tears copy assignment” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved