How last Friday felt like at work.

My February 10 post covering exchange rates was right on to the target bordering to being prophetic, for want of a better word. See how political instability affects trading and currency valuation? It surged to a low 52.20 last Friday at the wake of The State of National Emergency declaration by the president. It's a good thing that the peso is really getting stronger attibutable to fiscal reforms that had been implemented over the last few months. To be able to close at 51.96 today means some greater force is pulling the currency up amid the stirring at Malacañang. As the song goes, some good things never last, referring to the low 51.48 valuation the peso had against the US dollar on February 10.

Speaking of last Friday, with the building I work at being in the heart of the now dubbed Freedom Park in Ayala, and seeing the protesters and hearing news of what is happening remotely in the Camp Aguinaldo area in Quezon City had my heart do several back flips. Most companies in the building had sent their employees home at 1400h while most employees from where I work at are still asking whether we could leave earlier than usual. It was only in 1615h that we were told to vacate our work stations at 1630h.

Flashback: 1530h, Friday. We looked out our office window towards Ayala and saw policemen barricading the main road in front of the Makati Stock Excange from rallyists marching towards the Ninoy Aquino Shrine along Paseo De Roxas. Several colleagues would hoot, scream, and whistle in approval when a group of protesters would seem to taunt the policemen. The noise lends a festive air to entire floor amid visible tension from far below. More than 2 dozen storeys from where we are. We then heard that Kraft whose office is in Sucat will be sending theirs home at 1600h. I asked, "aren't we going to do the same thing?" Calls were made to and from directors' offices asking of situations elsewhere while still not getting anything solved. Hearing news from the GMA 7 area that protesters are convening in the Aguinaldo area and that military troops are also already pouring in stirred a more convicted consciousness in me that made me say the following towards two of our directors:

"The question is not whether the lobbyists below will get dispersed. What you have right there (pointing at the shrine) is a freedom park and these people have permits issued by the Local Government of Makati. If anything happens, it will not be from there. If the security did not inform you yet, protesters are convening at Camp Aguinaldo. And so are the military. If we wait much longer on sending these people home, it might be too late. Too late for them to head home if they live farther north from Camp Aguinaldo.

"This is not personal interest that I'm pushing for here. I live nearby and I intend to stay even if everybody else were sent home because I still have to catch a deadline and I'm not done here yet. It is them that I'm worried about."

Now, isn't that just heroic? (pa-epal, in street slang) Come to think of it, I felt blood flushing my face while talking to the bosses primarily because my opinion was not called for. What more, it seems to overpower the opinion of our security guys.

Good thing nothing really tragic happened or they would not have forgiven themselves for not acting fast enough. In times like those, it should be life above business. That's the priority.

Had the company been mine to lead, I would have declared the second half of daytime Friday a holiday. That simple.

Photo by Reuters from Yahoo! News

posted by Fritz @ 12:07 AM