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Today took the definition of "expecting the worst" to a whole new level. After years of nonchalant water cooler talks and discretely leaked rumors, CV might just be seeing the end of the road. The optimist in me says there is still a tiny chance, the smallest of hopes, the most minute of possibilities that things can turn around! But I'm in the minority in that belief. Everybody else, after today's announcement of CV's need to "find another building so that structural abnormalities in CV1 can be remedied else Intel will cease all future Manufacturing operations in the Philippines" believes that the beginning of the final chapter was written today, and in as short a period as 6-9 months we would have all packed up and moved on down Career Avenue as we finally leave glorious CV to the confines of Memory Lane.

You heard that from me first hand, and I comically swear "on my job" that there is no lie in that statement. Mighty Intel Cavite might just be finally closing shop!

It's sad! The announcement today was as much a chapter-closing-a-career announcement as it is a severance of emotional ties towards the company that many have fought for and fought with for years. Whereas before it was just a chance, now it has evolved to inevitability. The tears were not because one would not want to comprehend the loss of a job; it's because today, we would have given finality to losing friends and colleagues, and leaving behind a portion of something we have come to call home. For those who have been here 20 or 30 years, there is simply no other place! For those who like me are new, this is like breaking up with your first girlfriend, or graduating from elementary and going to high school and in the process leaving a bestfriend behind. It's the death of a lifestyle, and whether we'll find another that would be just as challenging, complex, gripping, fulfilling, stressful, addictive - all in the proper mix - as this one is something we all leave to high heavens for an answer.

But more than the just personal ties and the special bonds, this loss will deal a great blow to the Filipino! It's the death of a legacy! From here on out, gone will be the affiliations to the brand that has changed the world over; we will cease to associate ourselves with the challenges of meeting otherworldly demands and standards synonymous with the name Intel. We will be losing a bastion of Filipino excellence, a battleground where we have been victorious many times over. Three thousand Filipinos will join the ranks of the unemployed, albeit temporarily, and everything will be just another line in the history books, just another batch of memories soon to be lost in the nuances of time. Our victories will become mere statistics, our enduring legacy a footnote! We've never fought a diatribe we haven't conquered, but in the realm of cliches the line "there's always a first time" rings loud and true. This is the Filipino's waterloo, and it's name is business! 

Wherever this road will lead, and I steadfastly remain hopeful that CV will not die a death unbecoming of such an institution, for sure people will find new beginnings and new opportunities. The "enhanced package" alone is already like manna to those that have been faithful. And beyond that lies the light at the end of the tunnel. There is always that bright side, that end of the storm and the first rays of the sun break the cloud cover: for lost jobs, new ones will present themselves; for old friends, new ones will surface; for lasting memories, a new chapter is already in the making. There are no dead ends for the enduring, only detours that temporarily delay the journey. And always in the end, we find where we continue to steam towards!

Be assured that between now and then is not a gray area. Until the last moment, expect the Filipino to give it his best. We will deliver the best performing quarter Intel has every known! We will not leave one iota of doubt that the Filipino was masterful and overachieving. We will not cede our name to the filth of politics, or the high price of electrical power and taxes. We will not flame out! There will be a last hurray! And it's a chapter most fitting to close this storied epic. Where others would have quit and run, we will show them one last time. We will find the best things in the worst of moments, and then they will have realized what they are missing!