By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
One time I took a cab to go for a trial down in Itogon, Benguet. While I used to enjoy driving like crazy, I don’t do it anymore if I can help it. Firstly, my daily driver has a diesel engine because I cannot afford the prohibitive prices of gas. And diesel cars cannot be raced. No matter how powerful or torquey they are, they are slow compared to their gas engined siblings.
And there is another advantage of taking a cab. You can see around and conversely freely with the driver. On that trip, looking at the “posters” of candidates for barangay elective posts, the driver commented that the country has leveled up. His basis were the streamers and “posters” of the barangay candidates. They were made of tarpaulin or plastic tarp, nicely printed by tarp machines with the full color pictures of the candidates..
Then I asked the driver if he knew why our beloved Philippines leveled up. He did not know. I told him it was not because of our politicians who often ended up just lining up their pockets. I told him it was not due ro any brilliant plan of government bureaucrats or those of high sounding titles like directors, or undersecretaries, or assistant secretaries, or consultants. Nor is it the result of so called brilliant planners in the bureaucracy.
He then asked, “So what caused our levelling up?” I said, it was caused by our millions of Overseas Filipino Workers. The billions of pesos they are remitting back home are what are keeping our national economy afloat.
Too bad, they are also the cause of the high prices of lots or houses and lots in Baguio City and everywhere in this country.
Also, the trickle down effect or the multiplier effect of those billions of pesos are also making a lot of our people rich or at least comfortable. Almost everybody can now buy a car or a vehicle. So there is traffic everywhere, even in the nook and crannies of this archipelago. Go to far flung towns of the Cordillera and you will see what I mean.
The social cost to our beloved OFWs however is very high. A lot of them have broken families. While many of their kids could not cope with their sad situations, some got spoiled so bad they could not make something out of themselves.
Then I told him of a client of mine who came for advice as she was planning to go abroad as a nurse. She has three kids with a husband who was also good looking as she was. They were both young being in their late 20s. The kids were still small as they were still in grade school. Her husband drives around his own taxi and she could get another job to supplement their income. They didn’t have any rental expenses as they had their own house and lot.
So I told the lady that there were risks in her plan to go abroad. One was her husband was young and good looking. He might not be easily tempted by other women as I knew he was straight. But what if after many months of her absence he felt cold and horny, and then there was a woman “na nagbibigay ng motibo” or flirting with him? I said, I am sure he will not be tempted if she was just an ordinary woman. But what if she was his type?
Granting that he was strong enough to resist that, how about if he got sick and was taken care of by a nurse who was his type? During sickness everything weakens, even the determination to remain straight. So something couild develop.
Then tears rolled down her cheeks. She said, “Attorney you are making my coming up with a decision difficult.” I answered, “It is because I don’t like you to come back and tell me that I did not give you a realistic advice.
But she still went abroad. Lucky for her nothing bad happened. After two years she came back and never went abroad again.
She was one of our OFW heroses.
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