Ang Pinoy at Utang

I have nothing against my fellow compatriots and I don’t want to be labeled as being too discriminating. I choose my friends well and I don’t easily trust people. If you’re too trusting and naïve, people will take advantage of you. I’ve been advising my friend Nonoy (An Ilonggo from Dumangas) who has the tendency of being overly friendly with the Filipino factory workers. Nonoy would later tell me that some of his ‘kabarkada’ would ask for a loan from him. If he fails to give them a loan, they’d ignore him and would start to bad mouth him to other factory workers. There’s another guy who borrowed SR4K from Nonoy, exited the kingdom without bothering to pay and months later sent an email asking for another loan of SR4K.

This case is not only isolated to factory workers. There are office staffs I know who are earning a decent salary but are trapped by quagmires of ‘utang’. There are those who couldn’t even pay for their apartment and electricity bills. Worst, some of them would sell their flesh just to pay for their electricity bill! There are those na makapal na talaga ang mukha na kailangan mo pang ipahiya para magbayad. Believe it or not, their reasons for initiating the ‘utang’ are the same: ‘Nasalanta ng bagyo ang pamilya ko, May nagkasakit sa Pilipinas, Pang piyansa ng Kuya ko, Pang pa facelift ng kabit ko, Pangpa liposuction ng nanay ko, pang pa pader sa bahay ko’ and the list could go on.

I’m not saying that all ‘utang’ are made for the sake of making ‘utang’. There are people who genuinely needed the money so they make a loan. But there are also people who are greedy and would do anything in order to get a loan. I have a simple belief when it comes to loans. ‘Just spend what you earn and do not overspend. The moment you spend more than you earn, you’ll be in trouble’.

Today, I received a forwarded email regarding the swindling Filipino couple in Riyadh. They swindled their friends with the money totaling to Php. 2M. I pity the victims but this incident should give them a lesson not to be too trusting. People are blinded with money and some would even kill for it. The victims could only cry for frustration since there’s nothing they could do to retrieve the money they lost.