EDUARDO Villacorta Jr. and Marilyn Europa Villacorta are among the thousands of Filipino-Americans and overseas Filipino workers who came home last Christmas, braving the human and luggage congestion at the airports and the heavy traffic along Manila streets.
Ed, as family and friends call him, is a Baguio-born mechanical and electrical engineer who migrated to the US over 30 years ago. He started life in Miami, Florida, as a car salesman, but after a few years, managed to use his engineering skills again, working in companies manufacturing plastics and sheet metals.
Today, he co-owns a steel- manufacturing company which builds, among others, bus shelters in Miami.
Ed believes the time is right for business and other investments in the Philippines with the economy in the upswing, a stable government and increasing consumer confidence.
“It is good to be home and be with family and friends again,” Ed said. “We also want to look into possible business opportunities and investments which will, hopefully, keep us useful and productive in our country of birth.”
The Villacortas have resided in Cooper City, Florida, for more than 30 years and have two children.
“It’s nice to be home again after being away for sometime. I think we were here five years ago but all these hassles are worth coming home for,” he said. With him was his wife Marilyn who looked forward to a great holiday.
Marilyn was born and raised in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. She took her nursing course
at the University of Santo Tomas, worked briefly as a nurse in the Philippine Veterans Hospital before leaving for the US in
the ’80s.
“It’s been a long time since I left Manila for the US but I usually communicate with my siblings and come for a visit every opportunity I get,” she said.
Today, Marilyn is a senior nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital, at the heart of Miami Beach. She left the Philippines in her early 20s and came home 10 years later to tie the knot with Ed, her college sweetheart.
“I wanted the most memorable occasion in my life to be held in my native country,” she said.
Shortly after their marriage, they left the Philippines to start a new life in Florida whose climate is similar to that of Baguio City where Ed came from. They live in a beautiful house in Cooper City, Florida, beside a lake.
Despite their success in the US, Ed and Marilyn said their home country, the Philippines, will always be in their hearts.
Sylvia Europa-Pinca