The OFWs in the Carnival Dream

What’s OFW? The question came from a fellow Pinoy in our Fil-Am gathering when we celebrated Philippine Independence Day here in South Carolina. Small talks on what’s-you-doing and what-is-and–what’s-not were thick when I mentioned about meeting several OFWs in our recent cruise sojourn. Obviously, the lady who popped the question is “outside the loop”—what people usually conclude when one is not-in-the-know. She’s just plain ignorant of what has become a by-word for the Pinoy wage-earner in Diaspora. Serve it then to the uninitiated: Overseas Filipino Workers.

Wikipedia says it best: “OFWs are Filipinos who are employed in foreign countries. They travel abroad to seek better opportunities in order to provide for the needs of their families in the Philippines. Their travel is a kind of adventure (pakikipagasapalaran) with many potential risks, such as high stress, loneliness and exploitation. They sacrifice to make a living and provide a better future for their families, who they are separated from for months or even years.” Ye gads, do I understand this clearly. Four of my close relatives are OFWs.

The men and women that comprise OFWs are the Philippines’ great economic booster. A recent release from the Central Bank stated that remittances of OFWs from January to April in 2010 totaled $5.9 billion, a bigger amount than what OFWs remitted into the country during the same period last year — hard-earned dollars that strongly prop up the country’s economy, keeping it afloat during these recession times. No wonder Pres. Fidel Ramos has proclaimed them “Bagong Bayani” with December as Month of Overseas Filipino Workers when the bread-winners come home in droves to spend the Christmas holidays with their families. They are a hodgepodge of Filipinos employed in various parts of the world whether through the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) or other officially registered agencies or through their own personal efforts.

Who are the OFWs in the cruise ship, Carnival Dream? There are about 200 of them we met in our cruise vacation to ports in Central America, May 29-June 5, 2010. You would think this number is way too large, but not when you read these figures summed up in one trip of the cruise ship: guests – 3,646 and crew – 1,367. These are figures printed on a Carnival T-shirt that my daughter Raileen bought at the Carnival ship.

Traces of the social cost of being away from home I saw in my interactions with some Pinoy personnel. Nostalgia was strong in bespectacled Emilio Tayhupon of Tigbauan who has been regularly going home in his 12 years with the Carnival especially now that he has two kids to come home to a 4- and a 1-year old. He’s a Team Waiter in The Gathering, the spacious dining place where most of the Pinoys were assigned to wait on a big crowd of guests. Emilio has finished two years of Marine Engineering. Also with two kids back home is Laguna’s Rommel Abigan who humbly said “vocational lang po ang natapos,” two years of Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM), the course that has become popular with young people who have their eyes on a job abroad.

One of those who waited lunch on us was William Ebba from Olongapo who has stayed longest, 23 years, sighing how much he wanted to retire. He said he’s just so tired and the only thing holding him is his son who is bent on pursuing medicine. Now in his fifties, William misses his apos. Also from Olongapo is Bar Tender Noel Paguia, who works at the Dream Bar together with a Filipina. I missed the Pinay’s name. Noel was in the food and beverage dept. at the Subic Base and when that closed, he got a job in the Carnival for 17 years now. His son, a nurse, is preparing for the NLEX while his daughter has just graduated from HRM.

We got to talk with two Pinays one breakfast time: Marnelli Mahor of Ilocos Norte and Lilibeth Natividad-Mahinay. Marnelli is an HRM graduate, still single, and has enjoyed working with the Carnival for 5 years already. Lilibeth, then a computer programmer back in Pandacan, Manila, has been with the ship for 4 years and is lucky that her husband JBJoey of Las Pinas, Rizal, is also employed in the Carnival. Their daughter has just graduated from high school.

We were helping ourselves with sushi at the Wasabi, the ship’s all-sushi counter, when we met two Pinays with the typical, modest Filipina smile: Maurine Santos of Nueva Ecija and Joan Pangan of Pampanga. Joan who finished HRM has been with the Carnival for 6 years now. How I’ve wanted to know more about them; however, with all the fun activities to take part, I was really short of time for more friendly conversations. But not with fellow Ilonggo Patrick Detoyato with whom we bumped into most of the time, he being our Room Steward. Patrick hails from Dumangas, and he embodies the employee who “exceeded our expectations,” service-wise. He finished BS in Marine Eng’g, has been with the cruise line for 11 years so much so that he accumulated some capital to put up a business back home in preparation for marriage with Maurine, the Pinay, that I’ve mentioned earlier.

Like Patrick and Maurine, Riche Garvilles of Guimbal and Jean Amigable of Janiuay are just too lucky to be employed together in the same cruise ship, for 7 and 3 years, respectively, and still going strong. They were married two years ago, no child as yet, and saving for a piece of land to build a dream on. Just as lucky are Marichel and Darwin Barraca, also employed together in the Carnival. An HRM graduate of Sagrado, she’s an Ilongga, hired just two months ago, regretting only that she won’t be around to take care of their baby she’s left under the care of her mother. Similarly situated are Maya Sergio, Bar Tender, and her husband Santi Reyes, a Casino Supervisor. The couple also left their child to Maya’s mother in Marikina. A full-fledged nurse, she worked for a year in Cubao, and is now on her 11th year with the Carnival.

Recently hired is young Richard Belgica of San Fernando, Camarines Sur whom we met several times while he was keeping the Dream Atrium spic and span. He said he holds a BSMT degree, not forgetting to mention his girlfriend Mary Grace Asido. From Paracale, Camarines Norte is Waiter Benjamin Villar. There were many more Filipino workers in the different service areas: the three Pinoys in the Lanai Bar, two in the Jackpot Casino, and the Wasabi chef, a Pinoy clad in Japanese attire. We just didn’t get acquainted much with them because of too many, too varied recreation numbers lumped in a weeklong sea vacation, vying for our time.

The Pinoy staff in the Carnival Dream are but a drop in the bucket, so to speak, of the millions of Filipinos holding jobs abroad – be they degree holders or undergraduates in white-collared or blue-collared or skilled and unskilled employment. OFWs, mga Bagong Bayani of the beloved country, mga kababayan trying to endure homesickness and loneliness so that families and relatives may enjoy the fruits of their toil. Modern-day heroes worthy of our respect, praise, and gratitude — dreaming and working hard, fervently hoping to transform those dreams into reality

To our Beloved Modern-Day-Heroes

This blog is for our modern day heroes, the Overseas Filipino Workers - Overseas Contract Workers (OFW-OCW) in the Middle East, Europe and other Asian countries; the immigrants to US, Australia, Canada, etc and our foreign friends who continously share their resources and give moral support to the Kababayans back home. We love you and we want you to know it. Let this public blog be our freedom board to make you feel how much we appreciate the sacrifices you have to go through to ensure a better future for our country. We wish you well and will continously pray for your safety.

Please send your comments, greetings and sweet nothings to:

bagongbayani@subicbay.ph

for posting in this site. This is a tribute to our love ones who maybe far but their presence here warms our hearths, to the families who endure the pain of separation yet struggle to keep the bond that is truly Filipino.

Feel free to attach photos and also to inform our love ones about this site.

Salute to the great Filipino worker

BABE'S EYE VIEW By Babe Romualdez, The Philippine Star 11/13/2005

Christmas is once again just around the corner and we expect a deluge of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) coming home for the holidays. There will be the inevitable welcome at the airport with NAIA people assisting the OFWs or maybe the usual presidential glory greeting "Hello, how are you?" at the NAIA. But what really is important to them is to come home to a peaceful country. All they look forward to is to be able to retire comfortably in their own country, one day.

Things are looking up with the exchange rate predicted to remain at the P54 to $1 level by the end of the year. The outlook for the peso has become much more positive. There is no question that the OFWs continue to be the saviors of this country’s economy for obvious reasons. In spite of all the political turmoil and trouble, the OFWs just continue to work and focus on making a living so they can send money to their families and give them a better life. So far, their remittances are expected to hit $10.3 billion by the end of the year. But in reality, the figures could be as much as $13 billion or even higher. An estimated $3 billion are also sent to unofficial or non-bank channels. Last year, it was estimated that OFWs accounted for $7.6 billion in remittances.

There are about 8 million Filipinos working in 192 countries with almost a million of them in Saudi. The other top host countries for our workers are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Middle East, Singapore, Italy, and Brunei. But there is a big price to pay for the $13 billion in the sacrifices that these people have – social dislocation. We have heard many stories about a husband going berserk after coming home to find his wife going off with another man. On the other hand, husbands working abroad find another partner and leave their families hanging. Then there are those who work themselves to the bone in order to send their children to college. Sadly, they discover only later that their children have become drug addicts and criminals. Many workers miss out on the opportunity to see their children grow and, oftentimes, these kids become delinquents due to lack of parental guidance.

The Filipino family – the social fiber of this country – more often than not gets torn apart. A high price to pay for all the "money in China." But the worst part is the increasing number of sad stories especially in the Middle East where domestic helpers are not only treated like slaves but are beaten up, raped and even murdered. Many go abroad hoping to give a better life for their families, but in the end they come home catatonic due to the physical and mental abuse endured in the hands of these disgusting and abusive animals.

All the more reason why we should never have political appointees as diplomats in very important countries where most of our workers are stationed. Nowadays, the main function of Filipino diplomats is to protect these workers because they are the only ones OFWs can run to when they get in trouble. We simply must have career officers who are trained to help those whom we patronizingly hail as heroes. In reality, there are only a limited number of ambassadorial posts that political appointees should have. Most of these chief-of-mission posts, now more than ever, require a career officer who has some experience in dealing with OFWs. Glamour and prestige are no longer a consideration for ambassadorial posts. It is important that the practice of diplomatic political appointments must be stopped especially if these are just for the purpose of political payback.

It was the vision of the late Blas Ople, who was called "the father of the overseas employment," that made OFWs into what they are today. In 1974 when he was the Labor Secretary, he formed the Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB) – precursor of the POEA – which implemented overseas employment as one of government’s priority programs. This far-seeing move brought in a lot of foreign exchange that helped shore up the country’s economy. In addition, Ople also envisioned technology transfer to the country through OFWs who would come home bringing with them new skills they learned abroad.

I recently visited Brunei where we have around 15,000 workers, 3,000 of which are professionals. Roughly 75 percent of the expatriates are Filipinos. The Sultan himself employs 1,000 OFWs in his palace. The people of Brunei don’t really have to work, because each family gets an annual subsidy of $100,000 from the government. Everything is free – hospitalization, social services – so they really have no motivation to work. They need Filipinos to keep things running. At the Empire Hotel, a top-of-the-line, six-star hotel owned by the Sultan where he hosts visiting heads of state, it is mostly the Filipinos who do the work. They are much appreciated by foreign guests because they are hardworking and extremely helpful. Being fellow Filipinos, you get to appreciate them even more.

With the sacrifices that OFWs make for their families and what they send back in dollars to keep the country afloat, the government should spend more time in listening to their problems and in trying to care for their needs. This is time better spent by the government rather than focusing on the angry, noisy rabble-rousers who continue to try tearing this country apart.

We should all take great pride in seeing Filipinos appreciated abroad. It is a fact – given the right kind of environment – Filipinos do well. Filipino workers are now considered to be one of the best, if not the best, in the world. As George W. Bush calls them, they are the "shining light of the world." We should be proud of the Great Filipino Worker. I salute them!

Holiday Greetings

Greetings from mga Batang Gapo in San Diego

Viva Las Vegas

Butch Fermil (California) paid visit to Las Vegas - Olongapo Group

World Class Workforce

Filipino dock workers and seamen are among the best in the world.

Japan

US Military base in Yokuska, Japan