5:30 AM
The lightening sky marking a new day found the bleary-eyed students clustered on the front steps of the BSA Tower, waiting for the bus while Ms. Carol Dominguez solicited their feedback on the previous day’s activities.
6:20 AM
After a brief bout with early-morning traffic along Cubao, the bus pulled up to the Ayala Techno Hub in Diliman, QC, where Ms. Cris Crisostomo, Director for Supply Chain Center Enablement of IBM Philippines met up with the students and Ms. Carol.
Ms. Crisostomo cheerfully presented an overview of the company,
which consists of several divisions; namely IBM Philippines,
IBM Solutions Delivery, IBM Customer Relationship Management and IBM Business Services, Inc. IBM is celebrating 72 years in the Philippines and is the leading supplier of information technology, hardware, software and services in the country. The Philippine subsidiary is one of the top 17 companies of IBM global.
After the presentation, Mr. Alex Pantola, a technical associate, gave the students a short tour of the Innovation Center. With sleek and modern facilities, the center truly gave off an impressive feel of state-of-art technology.
Mindful of the full schedule in Clark, the students scurried back to the bus immediately after the photo op and took their breakfast on the road.
8:30 AM
The students arrived at Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga and headed to the Peregrine office. Chris Stolk met the group there along with Mr. Dennis Wright, Peregrine President, and Mr. Jeff Pradhan, Business Development Director, who personally welcomed the students at the front door.
An engaging speaker and a 33-year Navy veteran, Mr. Wright gave the students an extensive lesson on the economic, cultural and geographical advantages to investing in Clark.
Rather than setting up shop in competitive Western countries, the Kuwait investors of Peregrine decided to invest in the Philippines, which is one of the emerging markets of the world, along with countries such as Iraq, Haiti and Sri Lanka. “Do your homework. Do your own economic study. Don’t listen to other people, as long as you have the knowledge to back up your decision,” he advised the students.
Peregrine, a knowledge management company chartered to assist, facilitate and augment clients and companies in developing opportunities and conducting business in transitional and emergent economies around the world, is located in the Global Gateway Logistics City in Clark and was formed in the Philippines four years ago.
Describing Clark as ‘the future of the Philippines’, Mr. Wright rode along with the students on the bus and gave them a detailed perimeter tour of the area, pointing out construction sites of new companies, future investors, and existing establishments such as Texas Instruments, Yokohama, Mimosa, etc. 
Meanwhile, the students asked questions on cash flow management and strategies on convincing investors.His enthusiastic parting words to the students: “Be excited of your country and the promising future of Clark and Subic.”
10:00 AM
Mr. Wright personally dropped the students off at the site of Iren Dornier Technology, where Mr. Fortunato Samson, QA Head, excused himself from a training to meet
with the group to provide a background on Iren Dornier, grandson of a German pioneer aircraft owner.
Dornier was incorporated in the Philippines in 2006 and manufactures fully-built composite aircrafts used in sports. They are in charge of all MRO activities for Sea Air.Mr. Samson proudly spoke of a 1944 Dornier plane, the last of its kind made, and the last one still flying—with a Philippine registry. He encouraged students to ask questions on the building process, lifeline, classifications and designs of aircraft and gave them a tour around the production area and the hangar, where students happily posed for pictures with different aircrafts.
11:15 AM
Holiday Inn’s General Manager, Mr. Simon Morley, welcomed the students and assigned them to three groups for a guided tour around the hotel. Aside from the rooms and usual amenities, the students also got the chance to see areas normally off-limits to guests, such as the kitchen, housekeeping, delivery center, administrative offices, etc.
The three groups then met up at one of the ballrooms for lunch with the Clark executives and BOP sponsors—Simon Morley, Dennis Wright and Jeff Pradhan of Peregrine, and several representatives from the President’s office of CIAC who later presented a speech from Mr. Victor Luciano. After lunch, Mr. Morley gave the students a background on Holiday Inn.
Holiday Inn Clark is part of the widely-recognized Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG). Holiday Inn was actually converted from Chambers Hall Hotel, a military transient accommodation house of Clark US Air Base back in 1996. The hotel is a business leader in the tourism industry in Central Luzon.
Mr. Morley’s advice to the students: “When you look for your first real job,
employers will want to know if you are just an academic, or a well-rounded person. Land the job that will put you onto the first step towards the direction of your dreams. Expect constant change in life, and make a difference, whatever you do.”
3:30 PM
The bus ride back to Manila was relatively quiet as most of the students took naps, tired from the long day.
5:30 PM onwards
U.S. Embassy’s Economic Advisor, Tim Neely and FCS-Commercial Attache, Tyrena Holley gave students a talk over dinner about the background of the Embassy and the contribution of the Economic Affairs’ contribution to companies in the Philippines.
