Accents
Job hunting (2)
Bluffton, South Carolina, USA, March 30—It’s springtime in the U.S. of A. Beautiful day! Blue skies and sunshine all over as far as the eye can see. Yet, mornings can be foggy if only in the mind of the thousands of Americans laid off from their jobs. No promise of employment in the foreseeable future as the financial crisis persists, compounded by the “bail-out” buzzword becoming contentious.
Thinking of Bayan Ko on the other side of the globe, I could almost feel the oppressive heat of summer, the sweaty Lenten season, and the economic deprivations of majority of my kababayans. In the Internet when you read news about the beloved homeland, heat roils in the mind and drown the joy of spring weather—what with Nograles and cohorts insidiously, subtly and without trepidations dance the cha-cha (the lovely ballroom beat turned ugly to stand for charter change) as directed by La Gloria, the astute baton-wielder. How they want to make mockery of democracy and run roughshod on the people’s true will.
If the above isn’t enough irritant, a line in an Internet column mentioned a degenerate alien calling our Pearl of the Orient Seas “a country of servants” at the same time denigrating the hapless (?) category. Indeed, domestic helper tops the list of the employed Pinoy in Hong Kong, Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Guam, Canada, London, Italy, Australia, you name it. So what? Methinks the degenerate name-caller belongs to the kind who, with distorted values, don the veneer of the so-called class status. He should be subjected to a lecture on the dignity of honest labor.
Even as our best and brightest continue to make their mark in the world, domestic helpers/caregivers remain as the most employable position abroad compared to slots for professional, skilled or semi-skilled labor — reminding me of the Tres Marias I interviewed and featured in a previous column years ago. I’d like to reiterate their story being the archetype of the Pinay domestic helper abroad: patient, persevering, bravely carrying on no matter how much she misses home.
I met them at the NAIA at about the time former Pres. Fidel Ramos hailed the OFWs as the country’s Bagong Bayani, and the “d-h composo” reigned in the airwaves. The hubby and I were waiting for our flight to San Francisco when a whole drove of about 200 Pinays in their twenties and thirties trooped in. It seemed their flight was cancelled and they were waiting for the next available plane. They got me curious, seeing them as in a beehive buzzing in animated small talks. Three of them took a seat beside me, my journalist instinct prodding me to ask questions. They were, they said, domestics, part of the horde that had just crowded the NAIA lobby, all of them Hong Kong bound.
Teresita Antonio, Hilda Alolaya, and Ilda Santiago count among our modern-day heroines, yes, tres Marias, whose virtues I see fit to extol. They belong to millions of OFWs who prop up the country’s ailing economy with their collective billions of dollar remittances. (At least now $1 billion a month, wrote Sen. Manny Villar in The Business Mirror, March 30, 2009.)
Teresita, the most assertive of the three, relished how sweet it was to be home for Christmas and the New Year, made sweeter by being away from the drudgery of domestic chores in a Hong Kong household. She hails from Tagum City in Davao where her husband engages in a buy-and-sell business while looking after their two sons, one in GradeVI, the other first year high, and, the mother beamed with pride, a “Letran scholar.” An accounting major, Teresita graduated from the University of Mindanao.
Another Davaoeño, also a UM college graduate, is Hilda. Like Teresita, she has two kids who are both in the elementary. Her husband underwent a seminar on selling a health product. He takes care of the children and sells whatever he could while the wife is away taking on the heavy economic burden in a foreign land. Luckily for her, Hilda didn’t have to bother with a recruitment agency because she got her Hong Kong job through direct employment. Her cousin helped her secure the job.
Ilda Santiago of Quezon, Bukidnon was the quiet type, a contrast from the two women who seemed all too knowledgeable of the ways of the “d-h” world. Her pensive mood I found understandable, this being her first trip abroad. Her smile was sad and I could sense a heavy heart. She left behind four kids aged 9, 7, 4, and 3. Ye, gads, as if that isn’t heartbreaking enough. The kids are left with her husband, a farmer, and their grandmother by her husband’s side. She quit college as a first year nursing student, and when the children came one after another, the time has come to look for “greener pastures,” like it or not. The family had to sell a carabao and pawn a piece of rice land to be able to raise the placement fee. Indeed, a familiar “d-h” story. Ilda said her contract was for HK$3,670.00 a month. (That would translate to a little more than P22,000 per month.) As to when she would be able to redeem their land and build a better house as the others have done, only the years can tell and how much more time she would be willing to sacrifice away from her children.
I gathered that the salary of the “d-h” (they make no bones about the popular tag) in Hong Kong ranges from P15,000 to P25,000/month. (See how a public school teacher’s pay in the Philippines is a far cry when compared.) The amount varies with the length of service and the master’s (Hilda and Teresita’s term) stinginess or goodness of heart. Generally, all Hong Kong “d-h” get a 50% bonus after long service, meaning a 5-year continuous employment period. In addition, Teresita said she is lucky to have a kind and generous couple for employers who give her a 100% bonus every Chinese New Year.
When their flight was called ahead of ours, Teresita blew a kiss and I blew back with a silent prayer that their dreams be realized, especially for Ilda, a first timer in a foreign land.
Teresita, Hilda, and Ilda—three among legions of others—merit a nation’s gratefulness for the dollars they feed into the economy. Their courage and perseverance deserve our high praise. They are as real as you and I (they permitted me to use their real names) who face life’s challenges for the sake of the loved ones.
It’s now 2009. I got their stories more than a decade ago. I wonder how the three are faring by now. I hope we could meet each other again, connect with them for an article titled, Fulfillment of the Dream—yes, all the sacrifices paid for in the closeness of the folks you love, in aspirations concretized, and goals attained in the course of the intervening years. (Email: lagoc@hargray.com)