This is one of the great opportunity for OFW families or loved ones in the Philippines to have a memorable gift on those special occasions besides the usual money remittances. First of all lets talk about the logistics or courier providers. Money remittance centers have sprouted all over the Philippines and became popular because of Pinoys sending their earnings back home. I for one have tried most of the services and the money I sent was instant. It wasn’t long ago that remittances used to take 3-5 days to reach its destination, but thanks to the growing number of pick up points in the Philippines such as banks, jewelry outlets, stores and malls and don’t forget the modernization of the internet too. It has been noted by the Central Bank of the Philippines that as of present, foreign remittance from Overseas Filipinos have remitted and surpassed the 15 billion peso mark even though the exchange rate of the US Dollar has weakened. The Pinoy padala has not been bothered with it and their continuous support for their families back home even grew. Online services have popped up the scene and the affiliates of media giant ABS-CBN even joined the bandwagon for both remittance and box. For money remittances the most popular right now are as follows:

• Western Union
• Xoom
• Money Gram

Sending cargo boxes or most popular as balikbayan boxes of gifts, personal effects, clothes, canned goods or even electronic items have become a phenomenon too. Filipinos overseas loves their family a lot and most, if had a chance, would love to share all the things they have through sending boxes of goods in the Philippines. These logistic providers have come up with this ingenious way of providing Filipino families back home with this kind of support and can be also be delivered to any destination in the country. In our experience we have sent a box of canned goods, clothes, fragrances, juices, chocolates and other imported items that we can share. Very interesting indeed. Some of the popular logistic companies here in the US are as follows:

• Forex
• LBC
• StarKargo

As for online gift sending we have seen a lot and used a few of them. These are services for bulky products such as appliances or electronics, furnitures, packaged good items, jewelries and computers. Most of them are specialized on sending flowers which are good for special occasions and loved ones in the Philippines. It really is a convenient way also of sending a gift through internet payments. A lot of these online services pops up on keyword terms such as Philippine Gifts, Philippine Regalo, Philippine Pasalubong, Philippine On Line Gifts and many more. The services we used so far and have a prompt delivery are the following:

• MyAyala.com
• 22Ban.com

A way to spend some good time strolling around. Malls in the Philippines are conveniently and strategically located around Metro Manila and some cities in the provinces. There are so many of them that got merged, reorganized, renovated and constructed in a rapid pace to provide easy access to local and nearby residents. Most of them have complete facilities from food courts to fashion stores and from department stores to skating rinks, totally built essentially to attract visitors. While there are the ones that in the new term as “high tech” malls there are a few malls that are venues as bargain centers or wholesale markets. It is very hard to track an update to all of them as they provide different venues and offers a variety of market sales.

Though the malls continue to pop up at a rapid scale, many and mostly the new generations knew about its history. The SM Mall chain for example started as shoe department store in the late 50’s in Quiapo, Manila and was called Shoemart, selling various type and styles of local shoes that were made mostly from Marikina. The store became a success that saw the rise of branches in T.M Kalaw in Ermita, Cubao and in various parts of Metro Manila and in 1994 grew to be the largest mall chain in the Philippines. But the first real mall was constructed in the early months of 1976 and also was finished at the same year, The Ali Mall. Ali Mall was the very first mall constructed and named after the popular legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, who fought with Joe Frazier in the “Thrilla in Manila” bout. Ali Mall was built in the center of Cubao and nearby the Farmers Market, the COD Department Store, Rustans Department Store, Araneta Coliseum and the Fiesta Carnival. Renovated now with new modern facilities added, it is now called the Araneta Center, still owned and manged by the Araneta Family.

Since then, many malls have been constructed all over the Philippines and the local citizens frequent the place to shop or stroll around especially in the weekends and during summertime to cool them down in these air conditioned places. Below are a few list of some of the popular malls in the Philippines.

• Ayala Center
• Araneta Center
• Glorietta
• Greenhills Shopping Center
• Robinsons
• Shangrila Mall
• SM Malls
• Harrison Plaza
• Mall of Asia
• Tutuban Center