By A.C.C Delen
It was a few years ago when I first heard of the phrase Bagong Bayani loosely translated in English as New Heroes. I do not remember under whose administration it was coined. Regardless, this is something that is not new in the Philippines. As it was when I was a child to this day when I am nearing my second childhood, this is one thing that has not changed. We, Filipinos are still very much into slogans, catch phrases, and rhetorics…as if a few well placed words can solve all of our country’s problems which by the way is just piling up day by day. I remember different elementary schools holding inter-school slogan making competitions during Language Week (Linggo ng Wika in Filipino) and Nutrition Month. Im pretty sure there are a slew of others but like I said, nearing second childhood. I never imagined one can actually make a living out of coining slogans. Lets have a look at a few choice ones from Google.
Its More Fun In The Philippines- (Dep’t of Tourism) unless you’re stuck here during a pandemic season and you realize that its every man/woman for himself/herself.
Modern Day Heroes- until your landlord wants you out of your flat for fear of you bringing the deadly virus home and you can’t say for sure if you’re safe because there’s not enough PPEs to go around. To make matters worse, you’re asked to go to work but no transportation is provided. Since you’re a Modern Day Hero, you walk for miles to and from work. Now, that’s a hero in my book though there’d be those who’d say, paka hero.
In the Service of the Filipino (People)- ABS CBN– until you’re not allowed to, by the people who were voted for BY the FILIPINO (People). If that isn’t the height of irony then I sure don’t know what is.
May Liwanag ang Buhay- Meralco (Theres Brightness in Life) – until you get your monthly electric bill.
Bagong Bayani (New Heroes) until you get repatriated in 2020 and the same people who welcomed you with open arms in 2019 now treat you like a leper and you realize that you’d probably end up unemployed for the next year or so, if not longer. God forbid!
Yup! We really are into slogans. In fact, when I Googled Philippines, slogans I ended up with so many tag lines, catch phrases, and slogans that this column could’ve practically written itself but that’s not how I roll. So here we are with a story from one Bagong Bayani currently living in Sayangan, Benguet.
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O.F.W Story 1
If you ask an Overseas Filipino Worker his/her reason for going abroad for work, you’d most likely get the standard answer, for a better life. Better life is naturally translated to financial gain or stability especially in this part of the world. Hence, Ria’s (not her real name) reason for working abroad did not surprise me at all.
I first met Ria back in Shanghai, circa 2012. Having worked to bring her and a few others to the language center I was a manager of, I was sorry to leave them barely a month from their arrival. I would have loved to have worked with her longer but I left to pursue other endeavours. Before I knew it, a year has passed and I heard she’d also gone on to other things. Couldn’t blame her for that and like I said, greener pastures. Why not? She had a son whose future she had to think of.
That’s another thing that many OFWs have in common. More often than not, they have families back home who motivate them to endure the hardships of working and living abroad. Ria is no different. Fortunately for her, she had the skill and the personality that helped get her hired at a different school in Foshan, the southern part of the Middle Kingdom. It being a school setting, she had the enviable experience of teaching larger groups of students; something that she welcomed even as she also embraced the lifestyle of being in a smaller city, working with a more diverse group of people, and generally living a new life.
However, home was never far away from Ria’s mind. Come Chinese New Year 2020, she took the chance to visit her beloved son and parents. Our paths crossed again at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Office in Baguio. She’d gone through the eye of the needle processing her papers moving from the language center to her new school. Nevertheless, she’d come through with the characteristic cheer and sense of gratefulness. Resilient is the word that comes to mind when I think of her.
Like myself and hundreds of others, she’s also unable to return to her place of work because of Chinas border closing. Still working from home, she has had to send recorded lessons to her students at least thrice a week. With her area not having the best of internet connections (she uses data on her phone), she has had to spend a day or two creating one video lesson and another hour simply uploading it. Sure she gets paid until the end of July since thats also the end of their school year. However, she could only access these funds over the counter at her bank back in China. In the meantime, she and her son have to live!
She shyly admits that she now has to rely on the help of her parents with whom she and her son have been living with this whole time. To lighten the burden, she acts as the runner for the family as neither her son (minor) and her parents (senior citizens) are allowed to be outside of the house. In her spare time, she makes yummy goodies like home made pizza and cakes for her family. She too is uncertain about her future despite having a contract in place. China’s borders have yet to open for foreign workers. As of this writing, a limited number of expats belonging to only certain industries have been allowed in.
Asked about her future plans, she admits that the idea of online teaching cropped up but was immediately discounted because of internet connectivity issues. Though she remains hopeful that she’d one day be able to go back to her job in Foshan, she has not discounted the possibility of staying home for good should she be fortunate enough to land a job in their municipality. In the meantime she’s waiting like so many others. While waiting, she plans on generating income through either baking or agri-business. Like I said, resilient.
Ria is just one of the hundreds (if not thousands) of OFWs whose employment abroad hang in the balance. This in the face of numerous others being repatriated back to the country with no assurance of job availability. Then there’s the more than 11,000 soon to be unemployed personnel of a media giant (you know which one) that failed to secure its bid to renew its franchise. All things considered, there’s one thing certain in the midst of all this uncertainty brought about by the pandemic, the unemployment rate in this country will go the same way its COVID-19 cases have…straight up!
Speaking of THE 11,000 (Ever heard of the TV series THE 4400?), they’re not Overseas Filipino Workers. However, with the advise to persevere and find other jobs to sustain your families from one of the country’s legislators right before the media giant they work for was told by Congress to take a hike, they’d qualify as OFWs– Out (looking) For Work.
Let me end by again saying, this piece is not meant to be political, not for or against a personality or an institution. What you have read are mere thoughts/ideas and products of a cluttered mind.
Note: I was never an Information Officer for the Department of Agriculture – Cordillera Administrative Region. I was instead with the Bureau of Fisheries – CAR in my short stint with the government. **
