By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
This piece is not about the OFWs found on both geographical sides in the Israel-Hamas war. It’s about the stories of two Filipino couples who worked abroad.
I came to know these when I went down to Batac, Ilocos Norte last Thursday, Nov 2, 2023 to visit a rice production demonstration site using a new, effective biostimulant product. The product was so effective, it resulted in a yield of about 9 tons/hectare (average rice yield in the country is 4 tons/ha) despite the fact that the growing rice plants were subjected to typhoons and torrential rains.
That is just a bonus story.
For the trip I took an early morning Partas bus bound for Laoag city. When I tried to pay for my ticket at the bus station booth at Gov. Pack Road, I was told to just get in the bus as it is departing in a couple of minutes. I sat at the third row. There were very few passengers. No seats beyond the 4th row were occupied. I contented myself in the selected seat and started to close my eyes to sleep, as I had only 3 hours of sleep during the night.
All of a sudden, a mother and son tandem came aboard looking for their seats, #9 and #10. They had tickets! That’s where I found my supposed niche for the trip. The two sat behind me but when they counted, they found the seats to be #13 and #14. They insisted to use their seats as indicated in their tickets even though the bus was less than one-third full. I hesitated a moment but I yielded not wanting to destroy my mode for the travel. See, sometimes we are so focused on our “right” that we can not even consider some flexibility and altogether forget rationality.
I went to sit in the second row beside a man from Baguio city. I said, “Good morning”. He replied, “Ummm” although he was fully-awake. I thought, he was giving a, “don’t disturb me” sign. I was wrong because he told me coldly that, “so you are going to Batac”. He heard me of course when I told my destination to the bus conductor. Silence pervaded when we were traversing Naguilian road. When we reached Bauang he responded to my question, “where are you going brother”? He said, “San Esteban, Ilocos Sur”. Then he became voluble, discussing things that happen to ring a bell for both us.
And he was not an OFW, but his wife is.
He loosened up, telling me some stories that I can relate to. He told me straight, with side glances, about a reaction of his daughter who was confined at Saint Luke’s hospital for a heart attack even though she was so young, not even 30y.o. The guy, Fred, is a Kankanaey who facilitated the payment of her hospital bill totalling more than PhP1.5 million plus other expenses attendant to her stay in the hospital.
Fred is a natural when it comes to helping others. They have a young lady neighbour in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur (yes, his family was originally from the town and still maintain their house there) who seek his help so she could have a place to stay in Metro Manila while she will be having her licensure exam. He offered an unoccupied house in NCR owned by his son-in-law who is a graduate of BSU. They maintained a constant text messaging for the purpose while her sick daughter was confined in the hospital. The daughter came to know about the message exchanges when she got out from the medical facility, and accused her father of pouring too much attention to the young lady instead of helping her.
Her mother, an OFW who never got home in the twenty years that she was abroad, believed everything, unconfirmed, what her daughter told her. Fred confided, with nary a tinge of bitterness, that he could not do what he is accused of because he was busy looking for ways to solve their huge hospital bill. He doesn’t have big financial resources himself. He was actually going to San Esteban to meet with a man who will bring him to Cervantes on board a motorcycle to inspect a project by his grandchild, an engineer. He is supposed to help him make his projects earn income.
Apparently, the very long absence of her OFW mom created a deep emotional divide within the family. The all important filial love became so thin, it could not help family members (mom, pop, and 4 children) glued together. It’s a pity
When I returned to Baguio the same day but departing at evening time, I rode the same bus with the same driver and conductor. What a coincidence. This time, I boarded from Laoag Cty. I arrived home early morning of Nov 3.
On my way back, I sat beside another man, Arman, whom I initially thought as an Ilocano because he boarded in Laoag alone. Turned out, he is a Bicolano from Cam. Norte who married a beautiful Ilocana lass from the city. Their marriage was blessed with only one child, a daughter who graduated from U.B. She is the reason why he is travelling up to Baguio on her plea.
Arman and his wife went to Macau as single OFWs. Need less to say, they met and fell in love with each other there. Arman worked for 22 years in that autonomous city of China in a home for the elderly then came back for good, to take care of their only daughter. The wife will also come home for good after the house they are building in Laoag City is completed-and that is soon.
Based on Arman’s stories, the three of them are very close to each other and can’t wait to be all together for good. Meanwhile, their daughter who graduated from U.B. is currently employed in the warm (but cold) city. The husband is quite forward-looking. He is about to help start a piggery project in his native Cam. Norte, starting with 50 heads to be expanded gradually as everyone to be involved will gain valuable experience.
Like Fred, Arman was humble enough to admit that he is not the one pouring capital into the project but he will have a huge part in the management aspect.
While in Macau, he developed good working relationships with other Pinoys, two of them are from the Baguio-La Trinidad area who are both also back home now. He related that people’s discipline in Macau is way much better than here in the country. What he is not in consonance about is the practice of some young people there who bring their parents or grandparents to elderly homes who pay one or two months fee for “boarding” but forget them altogether after. The trade-off between progress and humane behaviour is so remarkable in favour of the former. It’s a crazy world.
By the way, the main roads in Batac and Laoag City were all widened within the last one-and-a-half years. And most of those roads are now well aglow at night because of solar lights installed on both sides of the roads. It’s like Christmas time every night. If you know who are the Lords there at this time, then you will knowingly smile why.
Maybe, Baguio and La Trinidad could consider learning from Batac. The city, which is supposed to be home of great leaders as proudly claimed in one of its government buildings, is also home to the now famous Iloco empanada. The city decided to hold a yearly empanada festival to immortalize the locally-developed delicacy. For this, the city constructed a mural that is clearly displayed in the town center. Proudly Batac.**
