Tales of woe

The photos coming out in the papers of returning overseas Filipino workers break our hearts. What a pity that they had to leave jobs in Kuwait where they earned money so elusive at home. But what’s more pitiable is why in the first place they had to pack their bags to go to Kuwait to clean toilets, scrub floors, wait up for their masters till dawn to finish eating, eat leftover crumbs, suffer profanities for not fitting in the culture of their employers. And yet, what they earn is hardly compensation for their loneliness, for the crumbling of their families, the philandering of husbands, of their teenaged children turning to drugs, becoming pregnant, or impregnating their girlfriends.

Still, as reported by media, many of them want to return to Kuwait despite the Philippine government’s deployment ban.

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The OFWs’ contribution from Kuwait to the Philippine economy is too huge to be disregarded. In a press statement, Sen. Ralph Recto revealed, “If they were a company, P40 B remittance of Pinoys in Kuwait puts them in Top 40.”

The quarter of a million Filipinos in Kuwait sent home P40.6 billion last year, the Senate President Pro Tempore said, an amount which, if they were a company, would have ranked them the Philippines’ 37th biggest in terms of gross revenues.

“If you add up their remittances over the past three years, the total would be about P112.7 billion, using current peso-US dollar exchange, Recto said. 

“This financial contribution to their homeland makes them deserving of government care, whether repatriation or legal help if they are still there, and employment and livelihood assistance once they are home for good,” Recto said.

“Yung remittances ng mga OFW sa Kuwait noong 2016, mas malaki kaysa sa gross revenues ng Ayala Land, Procter and Gamble Philippines at Mitsubishi Motors Philippines in 2015. Doble ng gross revenues ng Honda Philippines, Megaworld, Robinsons Land at McDonalds during the same year,” Recto said.

“Mas malaki ang remittance nila kaysa sa binayarang income tax ng lahat ng mga pulis, o lahat ng mga guro at kawani ng lahat ng state colleges and universities,” he added.

“What they sent last year is 40 times bigger than the government’s P1 billion OFW assist fund for the whole of 2018,” Recto said, referring to the Assistance to Nationals Fund that the Department of Foreign Affairs taps in aiding expatriate Filipinos in distress. 

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data showed that cash remittance of Filipinos in Kuwait reached $735.23 million for the period of January to November 2017. Recto’s forecast is that the full year figure “will be about $805.8 million.” 

It was $856.7 million in 2016, up from $617.6 million in 2015. The three-year total, using peso-dollar exchange average in those years, is P105 billion, Recto said. 

“Hindi barya-barya ang ipinapadala nila sa atin. It helps keep our economy afloat. Pawis, luha at dugo ang puhunan nila. We are under obligation to reciprocate this sacrifice with prompt care,” Recto said.

There were 241,291 documented Filipinos in Kuwait as of June 2017, but their total is 252,203 due to an estimated 10,912 undocumented Filipinos, Recto said, citing the January to June 2017 report to the Senate by the DFA on the status of Filipinos worldwide. 

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Until now, my household is a “stopover shelter” for returning workers. A couple of girls who had been my help for years and left for Tokyo where they were dancers in a bar strip, knocked at my door one afternoon and begged for a week’s stay before flying south. Two showed up at my doorstep from Dubai and Saudi, and while renewing their visas here, asked that they stay with me for a couple of weeks which turned out to be a couple of months. I employed them as temporary help, as cook and labandera. They brought as pasalubong, perfume, shampoos and pillow cases with gold threads, and a box of dates. “Genuine yan, Ate,” they said. 

Each of my temporary boarders had a different story to tell. One ran away while her masters were out, after forgetting to lock the door. Another told of being sexually harassed by the big, burly husband. “His wife would not believe my story, and reported me to the police, who picked me up immediately after her call.” Another told of children spitting on her. And still another receiving only one-half of the promised salary. 

There’s Lola, who more than three times, faked her passport and gone on to Taiwan, Saudi and Jordan on different occasions. Siony was told that her husband was living with another woman in the house her salary built, and her son ending his life in shame. Edna is the quintessential worker who sends all her earnings to her live-in mate left at home, who spends days and nights at the corner store with his barkada.

Mila, a registered nurse, told me, “In Riyadh, there were so many no’s to us female workers. We could not walk in the garden or cross the street alone. I had to stay in the dorm the whole day, alone, because my flat mates were at work. I was so lonely I thought I was going crazy. In my loneliness, I was almost tempted to go out with a male doctor from Bangladesh who was also lonely apart from his family, but if I did, I would have been deported, perhaps stoned to death. I read the Bible which I tucked under a pillow, as it was forbidden to have religious materials in our dormitory.” The saddest thing she felt was when she returned home to Ozamis City, her daughters were closer to their father, not to her anymore, as she had been away from home for a long time.

The OFWs’ initial source of satisfaction came from their children’s having television sets and new electronic devices which were the envy of their classmates, and there being food on the table, their house being fixed, a house being built, a jeepney or tricycle bought. But their children’s parents’ status was looked down by other parents, and caused fights with the kids’ schoolmates.

There are stories of TNTs who lived in an apartment in Tel Aviv. They found employers who took the risk of taking them as domestics. They would spend weekends in an apartment they rented. One time, they held a party among their TNTs, and one who was not invited, reported them to the police. When the partygoers reached their building, there were immigration people waiting for them at the door, and whisked them off to the police station, and eventually had them deported. “It was shameful, coming home here, and relatives disappointed that they no longer had a source of income.”

But there are happy stories too. The daughter of my first cousin stayed with her employers for eight years –“ because they liked how well I took care of their children.” She and other domestics were taken by their employers to London, Paris and New York.

They bought nice clothes and make-up kits and came home looking even smarter than their local amos.

Despite the lonely nights, the hard days’ work, their living far from home and family, many of the OFWs – not just the ones who recently came home – still want to go back to Kuwait. And hundreds more want to return to Saudi and Hong Kong and other countries to earn money.

It’s a big job for President Duterte – providing or opening jobs for OFWs. So they will stay home, happy.

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Email: [email protected].