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The Republic
Of Cebu
By Michael Alan Hamlin
July 12, 1999
Deplaning
a couple of weeks ago at a modest but modern airport I began searching
for my passport as I walked toward the arrival lobby. I started
panicking when the search of my coat pockets failed to come up with
the passport, and I could feel beads of perspiration beginning to
dot my brow. Turning back toward the jetway, I wondered if I had
left it on the plane.
But I had left it in Manila. The
early morning flight found me in the usual daze, and arriving in
Cebu was such a contrast to leaving Manila that my mind subconsciously
assumed I was arriving in a foreign country. And maybe I was.
For several months now, business
has taken me to Cebu fairly regularly, and I'm always impressed
with the can-do mindset, the warmness and sensitivity of the people,
and the drive to succeed by absorbing knowledge and taking entrepreneurial
risks. Like the rest of the Philippines and Asia, Cebu's had a tough
time of it the past two years, but displays a brutally practical
perspective of the new Asia, and changed economic circumstances.
"We in Cebu realize that the
major players in the world economy are not going to adjust to us,"
former Cebu City major Tomas Osmeña told a group of Cebu's
most respected businessmen and entrepreneurs attending a technology
briefing on my most recent trip. "While we don't make the rules,
we can play and win by mastering the game." After all, he argues,
"the proper application of human resources and initiative,
and not the exploitation of natural resources, were the reason for
(our) success."
Mr. Osmeña likens the challenges
of financial crisis, liberalization, and globalization to sudden
adversity. "Let's pretend that all of us in this room find
ourselves in the middle of the North Pole," he says by way
of analogy. "Let's say that half of our group would do nothing
but gripe and complain. That group will not survive. The other half
may accept the predicament, and fight to live. My point is that
those who will survive will not just survive, but will prosper —
maybe even better than before."
But Mr. Osmeña acknowledges
that prosperity takes more than the right mindset. The introduction
of transportation, communication, and digital technology will have
dramatic impact on Cebu's capacity to prosper "better than
before. Consider for a moment the introduction of the high-speed
catamarans by (the Aboitiz's) Super Cat. Before, people knew how
to make a boat go fast (just get a bigger engine) but it would not
be economical. Due to this, the speed of ships did not change from
the time of the Titianic, through World War I, World War II, the
Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Now all of a sudden, here in Cebu,
it is more affordable to ride a boat at higher speeds (than ever
achieved before)."
The Super Cat is a good example.
It shows that mindset and technology individually are probably insufficient
for conceptualizing the kind of quantum leaps in technology that
have brought about the dramatic change that characterizes the 20th
Century. But by combining mindset and technology — thinking
differently — the insights that lead to dramatic change are
glaringly obvious.
The impact of the glaringly obvious
is clear in Cebu's daytime population. From about 300,000 in the
evening, Cebu begins to expand to close to one million people during
the day. The increase is seen at the Super Cat pier, just a few
blocks from SM City, where shoppers, sellers, and other people with
enterprise on their minds are disgorged from the powerful but graceful
ships.
"Cities like Ormoc, Tagbilaran,
and Dumaguete can soon be part of Metro Cebu's economy because the
traveling time is the same as going form Pasay to Quezon City,"
Osmeña observes. Maybe faster.
Osmeña also hails the advent
of Internet communications and commerce on the economy of Metro
Cebu. "Did you know," he asks, "that there is a company
here in Cebu providing secretarial services to offices in New York
City? Over five years ago, I invited this company to put up their
business here. Law and medical offices fax their transcripts here
to Cebu to be typed and electronically sent back to them because
it's cheaper than hiring a secretary. Today, Innodata is providing
employment to 400 Cebuanos."
Perhaps even more importantly, the
Internet is bringing about technology literacy at the level of the
average person, democratizing, in a sense, opportunity. Internet
cafés dot Cebu City's malls. Repositories of knowledge, they
have become virtual libraries for students doing research, or just
looking for a good idea to turn into a business.
Internet technology, like the Super
Cats, will bring the Southern Philippines closer together, and change
the way business is done. "Tomorrow, a merchant in Carbon Market
might be ordering garlic from the Ilocos or corn from Guimaras,"
Mr. Osmeña suggests, "because of cheaper prices (found)
using his computer. Can you imagine someone from Laguna buying your
used equipment through the Internet? Those that don't adjust will
be left behind," he warns.
"It takes a crisis to make us
realize that there has to be a better way of doing things,"
Mr. Osmeña says. In business, I believe that the only rule
that doesn't change is the rule that there is always a better way
no matter what you are doing today." Painful as they are, crisis,
mindset, and technology can make great things happen. Cebu is showing
us how.
Copyright © 1999 The Events
& Awards Managers of Asia and
Hamlin-Iturralde Corporation. All rights reserved.
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