FROM earth we were made and there we shall decay. Considered as the element of firmness, it is the bedrock of fields, mountains, volcanos, archipelagos—a vast 30 percent of the planet is made of it.
Earth signifies dozens of juxtapositions. As much as it is the symbol of stability, it is also the picture of devastation. Just think of how a volcanic eruption can easily turn thousands of bodies into ash. Or how an earthquake can crumble buildings back into their basic materials.
Earth may also represent prosperity, but it can also mean poverty. It is where rice and corn are born, where most of our produce are weeded out, where life begins from under and continues above few months after. The soil is the farmer’s best friend, if not the buffalo, but it can also be his nemesis. When drought or pestilence hits, all of the farmer’s investment, labor and time are put to waste.
This is why for some of the most well-known and reputable Filipino-Chinese businessmen, 2018, or the Year of the Earth Dog, should be a time for everyone to take it easy on risking and assess what the hand has to offer. It will take a lot of discipline, they say, to be able to overcome an expected pesky year for business expansion and opportunities.
The country has long been celebrating the Chinese New Year in solidarity with the Filipino-Chinese community in the archipelago. It is considered to be one of the most important festivals, not only to Chinese living in the country, but to the nation as well, given the long history of trade, business and cultural engagement between Filipinos and Chinese.
Lunar-based
THE Chinese New Year does not have a fixed date in the calendar, the reason it changes every year. The colorful celebration stretches for about half a month, and has different observations and practices for each of those roughly 15 days.
The Chinese New Year is being celebrated every year by Filipino-Chinese communities in the country with hopes of attracting good spirits that would provide luck and prosperity, as well as closer family ties and peace of mind. The usual cleaning of the house stays on as a practice in most homes along with other traditions, such as preparing lucky money in red envelopes, locally known as ampaw, serving sweet delicacies and displaying a whole set of food and fruits on the dining table believed to ensure the family filled stomachs the entire year.
In various Chinese-dominated areas like the popular Chinatown in Binondo, Manila, people groove to the bass of the drum and roars of chants, as rows of dancers clad in red sleeves and dragon mascots make their way through the streets. It was like any festivity in the country—vibrant, moving, enchanting—but it does not celebrate the life of a saint or a Biblical figure, but the entry of a new year for a community that has long been with Filipinos.
Chinese communities have long existed in the archipelago even before the Spanish colonizers. Historians believe locals of the country have traded with the Chinese long before they fell at the hands of the imperialists.
National celebration
AS time went by, trade ties between Filipinos and Chinese developed and expanded into people-to-people and cultural interactions. This is why Chinese communities in the country increased because some of them married Filipinos.
As the family grew bigger, so did the grandeur of Chinese-oriented festivities in the country. These include the transformation of the Chinese New Year from a community gathering to a national celebration.
For Maria Alegria Sibal-Limjoco, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Chinese New Year is more than just a celebration. It is, for her, an eyewitness of history that saw the development of the Filipino-Chinese community in the country.
“The Filipino-Chinese commerce and trade activities are intrinsically woven into the fiber of Filipino business culture and economic life even before the Spaniards discovered the Philippines in 1521. The Chinese merchants were already here during the Sung dynasty circa 982 AD, and traded and bartered with the natives,” said Limjoco, whose family is partly of Chinese descent.
“The economic relationship survived the American colonization and is still is robust up to this day. Filipino-Chinese [businessmen] today dominate business and the billionaires on the Forbes list are mostly Filipino-Chinese, thanks to their work ethic based on frugality, patience, industriousness and skilled entrepreneurship,” she told the BusinessMirror.
Limjoco said there is no perfect time to celebrate the Filipino-Chinese businessmen’s patience and persistence at work other than the Chinese New Year.
New enterprise
LIMJOCO explained 2018 is the best year for those engaged in real estate, agriculture and mining, as the Earth Dog will guide the business into its peak through its slow yet rigorous work.
“Since it is the Earth Dog’s year, any business that is earth-related may be lucky, such as real estate, agriculture and mining, but it really depends on what the businessman’s birth sign is,” she said.
On the other hand, earth-related businesses might be at risk at times the Earth Dog is not in the mood to move forward.
“However, there are also mountains and earthquakes to contend with, so everyone should take precautions just the same,” the PCCI chief warned.
Limjoco also told her fellow businessmen to “be on their toes all the time,” as the Earth Dog may present opportunities that may not be tendered to them again in their lifetime. She added businessmen should emulate the characteristics of the Earth Dog because this is crucial in keeping at bay with their targets.
“The seers say it is good for business, especially new kinds of enterprises, but you still have to put in discipline, hard work and training. I am staying positive, especially because fortune tellers say that I should watch out for competitors, though,” Limjoco shared.
Yellow, green
AT the Chinese New Year, Limjoco said she and her family will be donning yellow and green outfits with respect to the colors representative of the Earth Dog. “For this year, I think we should wear the lucky colors of yellows and greens, far from the neutral colors of my wardrobe,” she said.
The PCCI chief also advised fellow businessmen to ensure their offices are all clean and neat before the Chinese New Year. This is to ensure that not only customers are attracted to and comfortable with their businesses, but also the good spirits that bring luck and prosperity.
“First, I always make sure that my companies are physically clean because cleanliness is next to godliness. Next, I nurture an inviting, professional ambiance, so that our clients can feel our sincerity, superior customer service and world-class franchise consultancy and sales programs,” Limjoco said.
“As for the décor, whatever animal signs that the Chinese New Year brings, I always have a figurine at the office reception area, the main door to our establishment,” she added. “Brass chimes also signal an auspicious tolling of bells for me every time a customer enters. Furniture is arranged in a most propitious way to attract good fortune from wise business decisions.”
Deal-breakers
ON the other hand, PCCI Chairman Emeritus Francis C. Chua said the Year of the Dog can either bring prosperity or disaster. The deal-breaker, he noted, is the determination of the businessman to take advantage of the times that luck is on his side, and deal resiliently when crisis strikes.
Feng shui aside, Chua, who once headed the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, believes it will be a good year for Filipino-Chinese businessmen given the support of President Duterte to them. “In the words of our President when he was still mayor of Davao City, he appreciates the Filipino-Chinese for making the products affordable to the masa [masses],” he told the BusinessMirror.
As long as the business community carries on with its reputation and vow to bring products at an affordable price, Chua said it will certainly be a prosperous year for Filipino-Chinese businessmen. “Bringing affordable products all over the Philippines is a major support for the development of the country’s economy,” he said.
Opportunities
LIMJOCO agrees with Chua. She also argues it is the perfect administration for Filipino-Chinese businessmen to take advantage of.
The President, known for his unorthodox leadership, is embracing warmer relations with China in a move that saw the country veering from its long-time military and economic ally, the United States.
“If the Duterte administration fulfills its ‘Build, Build, Build’ promise, which includes greater collaboration with China, the huge projects that will link our archipelago together and with the rest of the world can be the Filipino-Chinese community’s entry points in more business tie-ups or joint ventures. So, yes, if the Filipino-Chinese community opts to be involved in these massive endeavors, it can expand further to various business innovations, heretofore uncharted and nontraditional,” Limjoco said.
If Chua is to be asked, without the influence of feng shui and traditions, he said it is advisable for Filipino-Chinese businessmen to invest in tourism, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing and construction, as these areas are prioritized under the Duterte administration. He also told them to trust Duterte in his trade and economic policies, especially on the infrastructure drive, as this will eventually lead to improved and easier transactions resulting in better business activity.
Without banking too much on Chinese traditions, Chua said the Filipino-Chinese business community is bound to thrive under a leadership that resolves disputes in a diplomatic manner. “What is important is with a dynamic President who thinks and works for the interest of the country, any obstacle can be resolved for the betterment of the nation,” he explained.
Dog Year
NEARLY a hundred years ago, Filipino-Chinese in the Philippines celebrated the Year of the Dog for the first time.
In his book titled Feeding Manila in Peace and War, 1850-1945, Daniel F. Doeppers wrote it was this year the Tutuban Rice Exchange was founded.
After three years, Doeppers said 80 percent of the rice arriving in Manila “by rail was traded there.”
According to Doeppers, the Exchange was lauded for its anticompetitive practices and for “honoring secret bids scribbled in such a way that open auctions failed to develop.”
“No sales prices, volumes or parties to the transactions were posted; only with difficulty could prospective buyers find out the bids of others or the price reached on the previous sale,” Doeppers wrote.
He noted the Tutuban exchange was considered successful “in bringing buyers and sellers together on a regular basis in one place.”
But Doeppers also noted that it was the Hokkien Chinese networks that had the advantage in the rice trade.
“They succeeded in the rice trade because it played to their competitive strengths.”
According to Doeppers, it was also through the Hokkien network that the Philippines was able to import rice “quietly.”
Trade relations
FIVE years ago, the Philippine Senate approved a bill declaring the Chinese New Year a special working holiday “as a sign of goodwill and amity between the Philippines and China.”
That year the Senate estimated that the ethnic (or pure) Chinese comprised about 1.35 million of the Philippine population while Filipinos with Chinese descent comprise 22.8 million of the country’s population.
Then-senator Edgardo Angara was quoted in a statement as considering Chinese-Filipinos as having made “significant socio-economic impact on the country in terms of employment, community service, banking and finance.”
“Our relationship with China, especially on the bilateral trade and commerce, continues to flourish,” Angara has said.
He cited that total trade between the two countries reached $32.54 billion in 2011, surpassing the $30-billion record in 2007.
In 2011 China was the Philippines’ third-largest export market with exports reaching $6.237 billion, and the country’s third-largest import supplier with imports pegged at $6.085 billion.
Six years later, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) ranked the People’s Republic of China fourth with export shipments valued at $517.84 million and a share of 11.0 percent for the December 2017 trade.
“Exports to this country went down by 14.7 percent from $607.07 million recorded in the same month of the previous year,” the PSA said.
In terms of imports, the PSA said China was the country’s biggest source of imports with 18.9-percent share in December 2017.
“Import payments to this country stood at $1.65 billion, posting an increase of 28.3 percent from $1.29 billion in December 2016.”
Predictable, accommodating
LIKE any investor, Chua said Filipino-Chinese businessmen also prefer an environment that is predictable and accommodating. He said if the President continues with his diplomatic ways with China, robust trade and economic ties between Manila and Beijing should be expected.
On the other hand, Limjoco called on his fellow Filipino-Chinese businessmen to “help regional development by investing in the growth industries of the future.” She listed agricultural business, manufacturing, business-process outsourcing, creative, infrastructure, logistics, tourism, medical travel and retirement havens as the emerging sectors in the provinces.
Manila and Beijing may have engaged in a bitter rivalry in the previous years mainly due to the maritime dispute in the South China Sea. However, with Duterte rolling out his self-styled independent foreign policy that intends to establish closer bilateral relations with nontraditional partners, the Filipino-Chinese community can expect a boost in the days to come.
“With [the] Filipino-Chinese, business heritage emerged as one of the most important pillars of the country’s economic success. Indeed, it has played a significant contribution to our economy,” Limjoco concluded.
The Chinese New Year will be celebrated around the world on Friday. In the country, it is declared a special nonworking holiday.