Dubai-it: from Waiting at Dubai Airport to Seeing His Son Graduate – a Filipino Father's 20-year Journey

The ongoing evolution of the Business environment marked another decisive turn today. Dubai: In a little over 20 years, Filipino expat Eriberto Villarico has seen the promise of Dubai come true – in his life, and that of his family’s. According to latest observations, participants are closely evaluating both immediate and forward-looking repercussions.

Dubai: In a little over 20 years, Filipino expat Eriberto Villarico has seen the promise of Dubai come true – in his life, and that of his family’s. He still remembers vividly the first few days after landing in Dubai, back in March 2006. His wife, Cecil Villarico, had come to Dubai a year before him, living in a shared accommodation and working as a barista. All he could do was sleep for a few hours at her accommodation, before coming back to Terminal 1 at Dubai Airport’s waiting area, sitting and waiting for something to click. “It was pretty tough. I just stayed there waiting for my wife to come back from work, and while I waited, I sat and looked at the Dubai bus map – trying to memorise which buses go where,” he said. But he was in Dubai to make things work for his family and wasn’t afraid to give it his all. After three days, he finally found a place to stay – a relative’s house in Sharjah. In a week, he found his first job – working as waiting staff at an event. “I had worked in Kuala Lampur for two years in the food and beverages industry, before I went back to the Philippines and got married. So, I had the experience,” he said. Then, he finally got his first full-time job on March 14, less than two weeks after he first landed in the city – making quesadillas in the mornings and wearing a large Mexican sombrero hat in the evening as a mascot, to invite passersby to try out the food at the restaurant where he worked. “It was a really big sombrero, and sat quite heavy on the head. I would just tell people who were passing by, ‘Come in and try our quesadillas’. It was very difficult if it got windy,” he said, laughing. But the job gave him an employment visa, something that mattered the most to Villarico. “When I came to Dubai, my older son was just three. After my wife conceived our second son, she went to the Philippines to deliver. Back then, we couldn’t afford raising both of them in Dubai, so both my sons stayed in the Philippines, and my mother and mother-in-law looked after them,” Villarico said. But after five years of working with the same company, Villarico moved to the same coffee company where his wife worked, and the two slowly but steadily began to put together the pieces that would allow their two sons – Xyruz Joshua and Xyruz Joseph – to come live with them. “We were able to get them here in 2012,” he said. He still remembers the first few days after his sons finally began living in Dubai. “For the longest time, we were only able to meet them during our annual break – 26 days every year. When they came here, there was a bit of a gap as the school year in the Philippines is different from the UAE, so we had a few months to ourselves. That finally gave me the chance to really spend time with them,” he said. Building a life and home And so, the family began their Dubai journey, as one unit. Budget was tight, so eating out was possible just a couple of times a month – on most days the family stuck to home-cooked meals and window-shopping around the malls in Deira, a time Villarico says helped them bond once again. With the parents working long hours, the two boys quickly became independent, learning to cook and prepare their meals and bags before getting on the school bus. But one activity that the family always found the time and money for was going to the movies together. “I still remember the first film we watched was ‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’. We still love watching movies together – we keep talking about it. We discuss what’s going to happen before the movie starts, and even after it ends, we keep discussing it. We can go on and on, we all love movies,” Villarico said. Remembering the first few years of their family in Dubai, he added: “We had to be thrifty in every way. Thankfully, my wife would set a very clear budget and track our expenses. We would cook at home and also look for opportunities to earn a little extra when we were free. I know it’s not easy, but you just Dubai-it, right?” His true success That Dubai-it spirit – of turning bold ambition into visible achievement through action, excellence, speed and results the world can see – truly showed results when their elder son – Xyruz Joshua, finally graduated from a UAE university, in creative computing. This was in 2024, 18 years after Villarico first set foot in Dubai. “That was a huge milestone for us. I was so happy that I wanted to put up a huge banner back home in the Philippines, congratulating him on graduating,” he said. His wife, always the one managing the budget, shot the idea down. “What can I say? I was just feeling so proud as a father,” he said laughing. Today, his elder son has found a job in one of the largest bookstores in the UAE, while his younger one has started his graduate studies in the UAE, studying computer software engineering. “I think I’m one of the few hundreds of thousands of lives that Dubai changed dramatically, right? It’s an incredible global city for me, a land of opportunity. Even when I first came here, I had told my wife, once I get a job, she could go back to the Philippines, to be with our sons. She got a promotion. A few years later, we were thinking of migrating to Canada, and once again, we got a promotion at work. It’s like the city wants us to stay,” he said. Today, the 51-year-old senior store manager, works with a team of 21 people, and tells his young colleagues the one lesson he’s learnt over the years – to believe in the Dubai dream. “Even if I look back at my journey. Living with relatives, waking up at 4am to get to work using a car lift … to where we are today, I just tell them, ‘Don’t worry, keep going. You have no idea how far this journey will go’. Because, at the end of the day, this is home,” he said.

Market & Strategic Implications

Beyond immediate headlines, market participants are weighing secondary effects. The intersection of capital allocations, regulatory scrutiny, and shifting macroeconomic postures continues to elevate risk sensitivity across comparable assets and jurisdictions.

As further clarity emerges in upcoming briefings, institutional observers emphasize unit economics, policy enforcement, and counterparty exposure as primary barometers for long-term trajectory.