Three suitcases. One entirely dedicated to chocolate, perfume, and assorted items for relatives he has not seen the exact number of in several years.
An overseas Filipino worker returning home for a two-week vacation reportedly packed three full suitcases for the trip, of which only one contains his own personal clothing, the remaining two dedicated entirely to pasalubong for what he estimates, with some visible uncertainty, is “somewhere between forty and sixty relatives, give or take, depending on how you count the in-laws of in-laws.”
“I packed my own clothes last, actually, almost as an afterthought,” said the worker, a Dubai-based engineer who asked to be identified only as Kuya Jun, surveying his luggage at the departure gate. “The pasalubong planning started weeks ago. I have a spreadsheet. There is a spreadsheet for this. I know which specific chocolate goes to which specific tita, and if I get it wrong, I will hear about it for years.”
Airport staff report the phenomenon is genuinely common enough during peak OFW homecoming seasons that certain check-in counters have developed informal expertise in efficiently processing what one staff member called “the pasalubong suitcase,” typically identifiable by weight alone before it even reaches the scale. “You can just tell,” the staff member said. “It has a very specific, very dense feel to it. Mostly chocolate and perfume, sometimes electronics.”
Kuya Jun’s own itemized list, shared with this reporter under some reluctance, includes forty-one individually wrapped chocolate boxes, six bottles of specific requested perfume brands, three phone cases for cousins whose current phone models he was not entirely certain of, and a single unlabeled item he described only as “for my mother, and I am not discussing it further, it is a surprise and she reads this website.”
Family members awaiting his arrival expressed genuine, specific anticipation for the pasalubong distribution, with one aunt noting that the actual moment of unpacking and distribution has, in her family, become “basically its own separate holiday event,” complete with a rough seniority-based order of distribution that she insists is “not official, but everyone somehow knows it anyway.”
Kuya Jun, asked whether the sheer volume of pasalubong ever felt burdensome given his own limited personal luggage space, shrugged and said simply that arriving without enough pasalubong “is genuinely not really an option,” adding that he has already begun mentally budgeting suitcase space for his return trip in two weeks, a considerably lighter journey involving, he confirmed, mostly just his own clothes and a single balikbayan box of items relatives are sending back with him for other relatives working abroad.
His spreadsheet, shared briefly with this reporter, reveals a genuinely meticulous system, color-coded by relative category, immediate family in green, extended relatives in yellow, and what he labeled simply “political obligations” in red, a category he explained covers godparents, former neighbors, and at least one former teacher he still feels obligated to acknowledge decades after graduating.
Airline staff confirmed that excess baggage fees during peak OFW homecoming periods represent a genuinely predictable, recurring cost many returning workers simply budget for in advance, with one staff member noting that pasalubong-related excess baggage has become common enough that some airlines have begun offering specific promotional baggage allowances timed around major Filipino holidays specifically to accommodate the practice.
Kuya Jun’s mother, reached separately by phone ahead of his arrival, confirmed she has already cleared a dedicated space in the family living room specifically for the pasalubong distribution ceremony, adding that relatives have already begun informally inquiring about their expected items, a level of advance interest she described as “completely normal, this happens every single time he comes home, and honestly I look forward to it almost as much as seeing him.”
Economists studying overseas remittance patterns note that pasalubong spending, while difficult to formally quantify given how much of it happens informally and in cash abroad, represents a genuinely significant, if rarely discussed, component of the broader OFW economic relationship with home, one that extends well beyond the more commonly cited direct financial remittances into a considerable secondary flow of goods, gifts, and, as several researchers note, “genuine emotional labor invested in getting the specific gift exactly right for each specific relative.”
Kuya Jun’s youngest daughter, informed that her father would be arriving with three suitcases including one entirely dedicated to gifts, reportedly asked, with the specific pragmatism children sometimes bring to these situations, whether he had remembered “the good chocolate, not the airport chocolate,” a distinction her father confirmed, with visible relief, he had indeed accounted for properly in his spreadsheet.
Kuya Jun, boarding his flight shortly after this interview concluded, offered one final reflection on the entire ritual, noting that despite the genuine logistical burden, the actual act of choosing each specific gift for each specific relative remains, for him, one of the more meaningful parts of working abroad. “It sounds strange, maybe, but picking out something specific for each person, thinking about what they would actually like, it is a way of staying connected even when I am not there for the other three hundred and fifty days of the year,” he said. “The suitcase is heavy. But it is heavy with something that matters.”
For related commentary on generosity outweighing all practical logistics, see Satire And Politics and Satire Examples, plus further reading at News Satire Sites.
Additional coverage at What Is Satire?. More satire at The Onion.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/