CONSTRUCTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

There are many similarities between the US and the Philippines and yet, many differences.  Even though this country is replete with cell phones and the internet…..and McDonalds, the similarities pretty well end there

Typical Filipino ladder

 I had written about this briefly before, but it still fascinates me as to their construction methods.  Whereas in the states, all construction work is done by machine or with electric tools, in the Philippines it is all performed manually.  You need a trench built?  Then you get a crew of Filipinos with picks and shovels to get it done.  Last year a fiber optic line was laid from Bacolod to Kabankalan and the trench was completely dug by hand.  The slot was only three or four feet deep, but still, entire families followed their husbands/fathers as they dug from sunrise to sunset each day.   Tent communities would follow across the highway from the project as laundered clothing was hung on highway barriers, or even tree limbs to dry, while tiny wood fires cooked pots of rice.   

Would you like a house built?  Then don’t look for cranes, or cement mixers, or cement trucks to help in the project.  In the

Diggers installing a new water line

Philippines, if you want a decent house built, it is made of concrete and blocks and it is all done by hand.  The cement mixing is done on a sheet of plywood and a shovel.  If the structure is two or even three stories high,, the mixed cement is brought to the highest level by a bucket brigade.  How about getting some boards cut?  Don’t look for a circular saw but expect a hand saw to do the trick.  I remember as a young child, my dad only having hand saws and manual drills in his tool kit.  If you wanted something cut that was how it was done.  I also recall that he would give me a handful of nails, a claw hammer, and a piece of scrap lumber.  H e would then tell me to pound the nails all the way into the wood.   I was not a very good hammerer as I invariably would hit off center and thus bend the nail….it also didn’t help that dad had given me nails that had previously been bent and partially straightened, or was provided with rusty nails.   Still, it was an adventure to me.  As for sawing, I would usually become disenchanted long before the board was cut in half…..and he would give me the biggest pieces of wood to cut too (at least in my youthful eyes they were).   Yet, I would marvel during those days as I watched professional carpenters sink #10 nails into boards with just two or three hits of the hammer…or would manually saw through a 2x6 inch board like a hot knife through butter.  Then the electric tools came out and it all changed.  It went from manual labor to an easier and quicker form of construction.  Circular saws sliced effortlessly through boards while nail guns would finish a large roof with new shingles in a few short hours instead of a couple days.  Even I evolved from nailing wooden boards together to using screws to achieve the same results.  However, in regards to construction in the Philippines, the 21^st Century has yet to arrive.  

Recently, I had some carpentry work that needed to be done in my rental home and decided to price a circular saw.  The cheapest one I found was $150!   A price basically unheard of in the USA anymore, but here it was definitely prohibitive.  In the end, I borrowed a hand saw and did the cutting myself……and for the most part, the cuts were pretty straight.  

Yet, I could appreciate all the manual labor involved in a job here. 

Three story building in progress

The laborers would be paid between $5 to $8 dollars for a full day’s work and they actually worked.  At least they were consistent.  A two story concrete home would take about four months or longer to complete.  The speed of the job being dictated by the number of laborers involved.  There currently is a three story building being constructed downtown.  The work began late last summer, but as of this week, they were nowhere near completion.  It was fascinating to watch as they carried blocks and hauled buckets of cement up to each floor by hand.  With this country’s population at close to 100 million people (12^th most populated country in the World), there are plenty of laborers available. 

Another manual project I had never seen before today was the painting of the center line on the Philippine highways.  In the

Painting the center line on National Highway

states, we have high tech paint spraying vehicles with drivers in air conditioned cabs completing dozens of miles of roadway each day.  However, in this country it involves two men and several cans of paint.  While one is stepping on a wooden frame, the other paints the line with a brush.  They may not get the miles painted that the trucks in the states accomplish, but the labor costs are economically feasible, and provides job security for its citizens.   

  

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After dinner the other night, five year old Charissa Mae snuggled up to me while I sat at the table, looked up at me with a sly little smile and said, “Did you know that I love my papa?”