Philippines – the ‘’Bermuda Triangle’’ of Punjabis

Do you know 2 or Punjabi get killed every month in Philippines ?

There is a joke , that when astronaut Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon , there was a Punjabi Dhaba already opened there !!.  One can understand that Punjabis got attracted to migrate to rich countries like USA , Canada , Australia or UK . But why and what Punjabis are doing in Philippines , is a million Dollars question ?. Punjabis are prominent money lenders in Philippines doing high risk business.

Punjabi as money lenders

A country 5,000Km away from India with six hours air journey to Manila.  Philippines is as poor as India and no way richer than Punjab . A country of 7,000 Islands , with 1/10^th of Indian population and 1/9^th of land area is a developing country like India. What attracted Indians to go and live there ?.  Philippine have 150,000 Indian living there but close to half are illegal.  About 50,000 Punjabis are living in Philippines with many staying illegally and are doing money lending business to local philipinos. Money lending is high risk business in Philippines and always carry threat to life .

In local Philippine’s language Indians are called as ‘BUMBAY’, may be linked for men coming from Bombay ie India. Most of the Indian men do money lending business as micro financers. These Indian men are also known as ‘’Five-Sixer’’ locally. These money lenders Punjabis, for every 5 Peso (Philippine currency)  they lend , they take back 6 Peso with interest from Philippinos. To borrow money from a Bank by a local in Philipino is very complicated in rural areas , that’s why Punjabi money lenders are very successful there. Their network spread from city to village levels .

Many Punjabi married to Philippines girls !!

The Punjabis are regularly arriving in Philippines on tourist visa and many never return as already pre planned.  They stay illegally and join the existing group of money lenders and help them to do their business and earn money. Few get marry to a local girls (fake marriage ) for very low cost and becomes local citizen. They lend money to anyone in cities and villages who need the cash and charge 10-15% interest. Their duty start every day to go to homes and shops and knock at the doors of people who borrowed money , and to take it back with interest. There is always a life risk to collect the money as it involved cash.

Money lenders are in grip of Mafia

These Punjabi money lenders are spread across Philippines right up to small villages to do their business. They have love & hate relationship with local public as too much money is involved. The loan is given on good faith without any paper work and is taken back same way. But many times the deal went wrong as the loan is not returned for long time , which end up of quarrel and armed fight between Punjabis and local guys. These fights are happening very regularly. On average 2 to 3 Indian men are shot every month in the money lending dispute by local goons resulting in to many Punjabi are getting killed. The unofficial accounts says that more than 200 Indians mostly Punjabis are killed in the last 10 years , those were doing money lending business in Philippines.

The outgoing President of Philippines was very anti  of ‘’Five Sixer’’ men doing  illegal lending business and wanted crackdown on all the illegal financers and  threatened them to expels all of them , however Punjabi are surviving as micro financer despite threat to their lives.  Philippines will always be like a ‘’Bermuda Triangle’’ for Punjabis, and they will continue to do their illegal money lending business at great risk.