P.S.
WASTE OF TIME…. (kaya ano magdeal tayo sa iba, wag dyan)

American companies saves lot of money in term of paying salaries of overseas employees. They moved their business to third world countries mainly for CHEAP LABOR COST. This companies are saving a lot for bringing their factories in Philippines or Malaysia.

On the other hand, due to political unrest in the PI, theft among the employees & other factors contributes to the planning of closing the factory in the PI.

The labor cost in USA is very high, employees are paid by the hour according to union rate. They great benefits that includes Medical Insurance, vacation pay, sick leave, maternity leave, retirement plan,union protection & many others.

Union workers normally earns between $10.00 up to $20.00 & more per hour in USA. This high union rate per hour is what makes the American Companies moved their operation overseas like China where they pay the workers less than a dollar an hour.

I used to work for Intel Corporation in USA ( I am an office worker not a factory worker ) and I get paid over $20.00 per hour. The salary is based on your skill, education and experience. A call center agent in USA gets paid between $10.00 to 18.00 per hour..In the Philippines, call center are paid less than their counterpart in USA. What I am saying here is American companies are doing unfair labor practices in Asia/Philippines. They are under paying their employees…….they bring their business in Asia because of CHEAP LABOR.

I did some business travel as part of the job and got to see the Intel sites in Pudong/Shanghai, Chengdu (then under construction) both in China, and Penang/Malaysia. The Intel site in Bangalore, India is more R&D and not manufacturing.

I am proud to be a Filipino because I believe in the output of the Pinoy once put to task — hence the monicker “Great Filipino Worker” – the respected collective “nickname” our Pinoy Expats around the globe.

But I cannot be proud of the following:
- our infrastructure is years (no, decades) behind China and Malaysia. Just look at the kind of road that the Intel Truck travels everytime a shipment of chips needs to be sent to FedEx in Angeles, Pampanga (in Subic).

- our government and the way its being run. China offers a lot of incentives just to get MNCs come in (there might be some ulterior motives behind it – but that’s another story) while Phil even planned to tax Intel…its like being “penny smart, pound foolish”.

- within Intel Phils — there were lots of concerns about theft of chips and it seemed the whole things is highly-organized – that truly put a damper on whatever pride we have for Filipino work efficiency and quality.

Like we used to say back when I was still working in Intel — “Change is the only constant thing. Change is good.” — This might be hard to swallow for most of the manufacturing specialists who will end up losing their jobs but it is something that’s bound to happen sooner or later with all the issues mentioned above. It is a good thing that a company like Intel will surely provide a generous separate package for employees.

But its not all about the Philippines as an investor’s destination being non-competitive in a lot of ways …let’s face it, the demand for the product has slowed down “globally”, if not for all chipmakers, it is true for Intel. So much so that even development programmes for the Dalian Fab site and the Vietnam Assembly Test factory has slowed from a “go,go,go” gung-ho attitude a few years back. This is driven by the flattening demand roadmap.

If the demand is as robust as before…I truly believe that Intel will keep the Philippines site regardless of all issues. You may have lousy roads, occasional chip thefts (we called them HVI issues – “high value inventory”), and a building structural issue that begs millions of $$$ worth of upgrade — but if the volume requries CV to keep its light open, it would stay open. Phils account for 30-40% of the overall Intel volume of manufactured CPU chips and other chipsets.

You don’t kill a goose that lay golden eggs no matter how old that goose is…as long as the golden eggs keep coming.

But like a fairy tale gone wrong — the Philippine goose will now be off to the slaughter house, as a China Peking Duck can now give the same output at less cost.

Intel hires smart people. And the smart people at the top knows when to quit and give up on a country that shows a dismal ROI.

Of course they can’t say that to Arroyo’s face can they? So they just pin it down on Intel Cavite’s building integrity.

Good old Intel spin.