After Capitol storm, the silver lining

AN increase in the flow of remittances to the Philippines from the United States is taking place right now and will likely last for at least a quarter. A specific cohort of young Filipino workers based in the US are flush with new money and part of that money is getting into our money mainstream. And what they are sending right now is beyond the regular amounts of $1,000 or lower, the usual monthly sustenance for their families. The sums are quite impressive — more than enough for the family back home to pay for, say, an entry-level sedan in cash. I know quite a few Pampanga families that have benefited from the money windfall.

There is nothing mysterious or out-of-the-blue about the money source. In fact, the very public source of the money being remitted back home right now is called IPO money or initial public offering. The recent public listing of two tech unicorns, DoorDash and Airbnb, turned a sizable number of young Filipinos working for the two firms in the Bay Area into instant peso millionaires. Just calculate — 10,000 shares priced at a very low $130 per share after a few years with either Airbnb or DoorDash. Even with a tax rate of about 49 percent, those vested with shares before the public listing still earned decent amounts. It was quite easy for them to lop off a portion of the IPO earnings and send the money back home. After all, those vested shares came on top of the salaries and bonuses and the regular compensation in their work contracts. Pre-IPO, the shares just had imaginary hard cash equivalents. After listing day came D-Day as both Airbnb and DoorDash shares rose spectacularly.