Mauie Flores

I was at the flu vaccine seminar last Saturday when my aunt-in-law called me up to ask about the shutdown of Intel Philippines' Cavite plant. I sadly confirmed the news to her. She was overly concerned about her friends and other neighbors who were working for Intel. I assured her that these people will be properly compensated for sure. Yet, I still feel bad because Intel Philippines is such a big part of of lives. My husband was part of the company for nine years. We had so many good times while he was with the company. Somehow, I felt relieved that he was able to move on to another company (a global beverage company this time around) in 2005, just nine months shy of his supposed to be 10th anniversary in Intel.

Still, I feel that there is nothing to be completely happy about it. We still have close friends who did not have the options to find another job before the company announced the shutdown. We expected that it wouldn't be during this year. Most people who have stayed still hung on to the hope that things will be better. I am so worried about our friends who still have existent car loans and housing loans and those who are sending children to school. They have bought their homes in Cavite to be near to the plant. What should do they do now? Approximately 1,800 employees will be affected. The Penang plant and also two wafer fabrication plants in the US will also be closed down. I guess there will be a surge of new members of the "Intel Outside" group.

As I said, Intel has been a huge part of our lives. Even now that my husband is with another company, the values and culture that he learned from Intel still remained. He even instilled their "Safety First" policy in me. We have so many properties that we may call "Katas ng Intel". Sitti (our Honda City) was acquired through the company car loan program. Our eight-year old HP desktop computer was given by the company during the good times in 2001. Every employee got a desktop computer package for their home use.

Reality bit my senses today when I read that Texas Instruments will be laying off 400 of their Baguio plant employees . I think it is about time for people in the semiconductor industry to think about other options before it's too late.