Coronavirus Lockdown: One Nurse's Journey, Cryptocurrency, and More!

More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.

The Philippines ranks 2nd in cryptocurrency ownership globally. The reason is because during the pandemic many Filiponos were playing online games that paid out in Bitcoin.

https://business.inquirer.net/497380/philippines-ranks-2nd-in-cryptocurrency-ownership-globally-study

Filipinos are leading in terms of cryptocurrency ownership in the world and they are keen on pouring in more money in these digital assets that have become alternative forms of investments, according to a study commissioned by blockchain company Consensys.

In its annual global opinion survey conducted by data analytics group YouGov, it was revealed that 52 percent of the Philippines bought cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

This put the Philippines in the second rank in terms of crypto adoption next to South Africa, whose 65 percent of the respondents have digital asset ownership.

The latest figure for the Philippines showed an increase in crypto ownership from 45 percent in 2023.

Moving forward, 59 percent of the surveyed Filipinos will “definitely” or “probably” invest more in these highly volatile assets.

The study, which surveyed over 18,000 individuals across 18 countries, noted that Filipinos having a high level of awareness on cryptocurrency translated to a desire to purchase more.

The adoption of cryptocurrency in the Philippines, to recall, accelerated during the pandemic because of play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity. At one point, Filipinos made up about 40 percent of the game’s player base.

The survey found out that cryptocurrency was most associated with the “future of money” and “alternative to the traditional financial ecosystem.”

However, the investors remain wary over scams that could lead to financial losses.

It may be the future of money but at the moment it's not clear how cryptocurrency will translate into the real world in the Philippines. 

The pandemic depleted Filipino's savings accounts and there has been no rebound yet. 

https://business.inquirer.net/497780/percentage-of-filipinos-with-savings-dips-to-over-3-year-low

The proportion of Filipino households with savings dipped to its lowest level in over three years in the fourth quarter, with pessimistic consumers yet to regain their pre-pandemic confidence level as they continue to brace for higher inflation and borrowing costs.

A nationwide survey of 5,350 families showed 25.6 percent of families in the Philippines have money to save in the October-December period, lower than the 29-percent recorded in the third quarter, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported.

The top reasons for setting aside cash were emergencies; health and medical expenses; education; retirement; business capital and investment; and house purchase. But data showed the latest result was the lowest reading since the third quarter of 2021, when the percentage of families that can save stood at 25.2 percent amid harsh pandemic lockdowns.

As it is, some analysts believe that the need to rebuild household savings could delay the benefits of the ongoing easing cycle of the BSP, which has so far cut the policy rate by a total of 75 basis points to 5.75 percent. This is because families might defer any big-ticket purchases until they can fix their inflation-battered balance sheets.

Fewer families had savings as overall consumer sentiment remains bleak.

The central bank said households expect inflation to increase, which can hurt their ability to save money. Specifically, consumers expect price growth to average 6.2 percent for the next 12 months, running above the 2 to 4 percent target range of the BSP.

Survey results also showed consumers anticipate interest rates to spike and the peso to weaken against the US dollar in the fourth quarter. Respondents were also worried that joblessness may worsen.

This, in turn, brought the overall confidence index (CI) for households at -11.1 percent in the fourth quarter, staying in the negative territory as pessimists continued to outnumber the optimists during the period.

But while the latest CI for consumers was less pessimistic than the -15.6 percent in the third quarter, the BSP noted that the confidence level of households has yet to return to the positive territory seen before the pandemic.

That was a stark contrast to the overall CI for businesses, which climbed to 44.5 percent from 32.9 percent in the preceding quarter as firms gear up for the typical surge in demand during the Christmas shopping season.

For now, respondents attributed their less downbeat sentiment on expectations of higher and additional sources of income; more working family members; and an increase in available jobs and permanent employment.

The negative effects of the worldwide economic shutdown will continue for the foreseeable future. 

Despite rising inflation and depleted savings accounts restaurants are set to regain their prepandemic vibrancy next year. 

https://business.inquirer.net/498144/restaurants-seen-to-regain-prepandemic-vibrancy-next-year

The country’s food service sales are projected to grow by 12 percent in 2024 and subsequently surpass prepandemic levels next year on the back of store expansions and increasing customer queues at restaurants.

“As more consumers dine out, restaurant chains open new restaurants, cafes, kiosks and bars, as well as franchise international restaurants in the Philippines,” the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) said in a report.

The foreign agency said it expected the industry, particularly sales at hotels, restaurants and institutions, to flourish this year and the next amid back-to-normal consumer spending and lower inflation as tourism picks up.

“The resumption of daily face-to-face classes and work boosts food service sector sales,” it said.

The USDA-FAS noted that most consumers were opting to dine out, specifically at quick service restaurants because of their affordability and convenience.

It said customer queues at certain restaurants were reaching prepandemic level seating capacity during peak hours.

“Restaurant chains expand to new locations in rural areas, while many hotels and restaurants feature imported and premium ingredients,” the report said.

“With international tourists surpassing government targets, a strengthened tourism industry with more than five million international visitors in 2023 boosts sales as events resume in hotels and event venues,” it added.

The USDA-FAS said it anticipated a “moderate” growth of 5 percent in the food manufacturing sector despite continued expansion as they grapple with higher input costs of raw materials.

It said the increase in production costs have forced some manufacturers to jack up their prices.

The retail food sector is also seen to end the year with a 5-percent increase in sales because of thriftier spending and reduced home cooking.

“Modern retail store expansion in key cities and provinces generates additional retail sales. Stores continue exploring new imported food and beverage products to offer novel options to consumers,” the USDA-FAS said.

Prices go up and yet Jollibee thrives. 

It is a widely known fact that Filipino nurses are underpaid and overworked which is why they leave for greener pastures in the USA, UK, Australia, or elsewhere. Here is the story of one nurse who worked through the pandemic and finally said enough was enough. 

https://globalnation.inquirer.net/259153/one-nurses-journey-how-a-nation-loses-its-caregivers

It was the icy feel of powdery snow in his fingers, during his first Christmas away from home in 2022, that made Filipino nurse Rolando Daga finally realize he had arrived in America.

But it was not the snow that made him think hard how this stroke of good fortune would change his life in this new, vast and foreign land.

It was his salary today, working as a registered nurse in the United States paid with the mighty American dollar, that has made him doubly count his blessings.

Consider this: What Daga earned in a month in his job in the Philippines, he earned that in a day here in the United States.

His last salary as an emergency room nurse at the privately funded Divine Word Hospital in Tacloban, Leyte, was P21,000 a month.

Now, Daga is paid $656 or about P38,400 for a 12-hour shift in one day as an interventional radiology nurse at Medical City Hospital in Dallas, Texas, some 2,500 kilometers south of this city.

This nurse, a Waray and a Leyteño, makes more money than President Marcos, an adopted Waray and Leyteño.

“I have nothing but gratitude for this opportunity. I owe everything to God for bringing me to America,” the 36-year-old immigrant told this reporter.

On vacation here to spend the holidays with friends, Daga is enjoying this city’s bright lights at the fabled Times Square and reflecting on his life-changing decision three years ago to work and live in America after toiling as a nurse for 13 years in the Philippines.

“Leaving your family behind to work abroad is never easy. But we have to make hard choices and hard decisions in life,” said Daga, a devout Catholic who says he misses his Sunday routine of singing hymns as a member of the choir at Our Lord’s Transfiguration Cathedral in his hometown of Palo, Leyte.

But the pandemic came in 2020 and Filipinos started dying from the COVID-19 virus.

Amid that ghastly backdrop, nightly executions of young men his age in his hometown, triggered by President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, caused Daga to be fearful about his future.

With the low pay, delayed benefits, chronic understaffing, punishing long hours and sometimes cruel emotional toll that plagued members of his profession, Daga’s frustrations reached a tipping point.

In July of 2022, he and 31 other Filipino nurses signed a three-year contract and received their EB3 visas to work in the United States with Avant Healthcare, a US-based company specializing in the recruitment of Filipino nurses.

Daga’s mother, 61-year-old Racquel, told this reporter in a Facebook chat that “His decision to work in America was fueled by the pandemic. RG (Rolando’s nickname) felt his career was going nowhere.”

Like a battle-hardened soldier, Daga became a top draw for labor recruiters because he worked through the double gauntlet of the pandemic and, before that, the unprecedented disaster of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) which killed thousands of his province mates in Leyte.

Since 2002, various iterations of Republic Act No. 9173 (the Philippine Nursing Act enacted that year) have failed to provide the necessary benefits promised even after it had become law.

“Parang sirang plaka (Like a broken record),” Daga said, referring to the broken promises of failed legislation tried by a succession of leaders from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Marcos, in their hapless bid to increase the salaries and improve the working conditions of nurses whom, ironically, they call “heroes.”

One such measure from 2019 was Senate Bill No. 260, filed by then Sen. Francis Pangilinan which proposed a starting salary of P30,500 for nurses—even if the Supreme Court already ruled that year that the said salary was, in fact, prescribed by RA 9173.

“Good luck!” Daga said, showing a sly smile.

When he left on July 1, 2022, the government still owed Daga P45,000 in hazard pay under the One COVID Allowance (OCA) that Duterte had promised health-care workers who worked during the pandemic.

“For me, it was the last straw,” Daga said, admitting that his full hazard pay was paid only six months after his arrival in the United States.

As Daga tried to settle in his new life in America, tragedy struck twice—his beloved aunt Rosario died of breast cancer and a close cousin, Dandy, committed suicide in their hometown.

“May kapalit ang separation from our families,” Daga said with a hint or sadness. (Separation from our families has a price.)

Driving a sleek, brand-new pearl-white Subaru Crosstrek, Daga said what he loves about America now are the national parks and its beautiful, wide-open spaces.

“I love driving in the open roads,” he said.

In one of his frequent road trips, Daga has even traveled as far as Canada to visit an uncle there.

“I rode a pedicab and a jeepney to work every day in Tacloban, so this is a new thing for me,” the nurse said as he looked with pride at his new car.

It was his first major acquisition as an immigrant in America—and, according to him, his gift to himself.

Almost assured of a green card—or the right to live in the United States permanently—Daga becomes part of nearly 200,000 Filipino nurses who now call America home.

“To work and live in America is still the biggest dream for most Filipino nurses,” said Dr. Mary Jane Garcia-Dia, past president of the Philippine Nurses Association in America (PNAA), the biggest group of Filipino nurses with 55 chapters across the United States.

Daga remembers that in his 2008 class of some 60 students at St. Scholastica’s College of Health Sciences in Tacloban, about a third had left to work abroad in Saudi Arabia—where some 130,000 Filipino nurses are working—and in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

He said this exodus of nursing jobs will continue because the present administration is all too willing to send them leaving for jobs abroad instead of trying to sustain their welfare in an already badly hemorrhaging health care industry.

“They are after our remittances. It’s that simple,” Daga said.

The President himself admitted to this when he asked a group of doctors and nurses to stand up before a crowd, during a side trip to New Jersey when he visited the United States in September 2022 to address the United Nations.

In his speech before that Filipino community, Marcos said 40 percent of the $34.8 billion contributed in 2021 by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) came from US-based health-care workers.

“And then [they’ll even remove] PhilHealth [from the] budget,” Daga said, referring to the President’s plan to cut P74 billion from the much-needed health care benefits for vulnerable Filipinos in the proposed 2025 national budget.

“But I have done my part for my country. Now it is time for me to take care of myself and my family,” the nurse said.

Daga remembered the first time he set foot on American soil was on July 3, 2022—the eve of US independence.

Looking up at the sky, he said he thought about the millions of men and women who—like him—arrived in America to follow their dreams.

“It is my time. This is my time,” Daga whispered to himself, as fireworks started to burn bright in the night sky.

Sad. Many such cases.