November 11, 1997 was the first day of my attachment in the Philippines.  As I stepped out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, there was a sense of excitement and fear in the air.  I was full of apprehension of the eight weeks that lies ahead.  What were the people like?  What kind of assignments would I get?  Such questions kept flashing through my mind.

I was attached to Keppel Monte Bank in the Philippines.  It was recently acquired by the Keppel Group of Singapore, after a run on the bank in April 1997.  My main job there was to assist the Controller in setting up the various systems of the bank and to enable the bank to cope with future expansion.  With regard to the assignments that I was given, they were pretty interesting.  The assignments were not really technical stuff, like doing debits & credits (as I would have expected of accounting) but more like projects which require an understanding of figures, complemented with commonsensical problem solving approaches.  Some examples are like revamping the Purchasing, Accounts Payable and Cash Disbursement System; analyzing the current depreciation policies and recommending changes; and studying the cost of paper usage and printing, followed by recommending the most cost efficient one.
Indeed the attachment had given me a greater insight and interest toward the subjects that we take in school.  I appreciate the scope of our courses here in NTU.  I used to think that some of the courses seemed irrelevant (not that I find them very relevant now) but I realize that any academic pursuit can be viewed as a process of accumulating knowledge from different fields which would come in handy in future.  We may not use all of them all of the time, but definitely we will use some of them some of the time and all of them in a matter of time (if we remain in the corporate world that is).

On a personal level, I found my Filipinos colleagues to be very friendly and passionate about having fun.  In the run up to Christmas, we had a party almost every other day.  The Filipinos especially love to dance; in fact we had two dance parties in the office in a space of a week.  I have also benefited much from the way they look at their lives.  They are able to be happy and contented with life even in the face of a crisis.  Though there was supposed to be a financial crisis, every weekend, the shopping centres would be packed with people and the people were generous with their Christmas gifts.  I for one would not complain because I came back with an additional bag filled with gifts.
Besides, I found that the Filipinos would never let work take away time for other things in life such as relationships between friends and loved ones and other activities.  Maybe, there is a need for us in Singapore (maybe speaking for myself) to look carefully at our busy schedules and re-prioritize.
On the whole, the attachment to Philippines was an interesting one which caused me to take a second look at what I have been doing with my life and have a more purposeful approach to my academic pursuit.