Women and migrants

The message was short but a meaningful reminder that yesterday, March 8, was International Women's Day. Mariter, the message's sender made the day worth celebrating. You see, the sender badly needed that P1 that she used for that text message. That P1 could have added up to much-needed food or other needs for her family. Mariter, instead, chose to spend her precious P1 to remind us all about the true meaning of celebrating Women's Day.

A model of strength, Mariter begins and ends her day at the busy and risky Cebu Port. Her family has set up their house within the pier area, along with thousand other homeless and jobless. Fighting poverty has been the trademark of their lives, be it in terms of finding food, seeking regular work, challenging court orders to evict them from their present residence or vending area.

Mariter, however, remains undaunted. Despite the port being a haven of risks and dangers to strangers and their possessions, to Mariter and many other women port vendors she has organized and led through the years, the port is their refuge, their home, their source of food, and life.

She has learned not only to read and write but she has pushed herself to learn how to type. She has learned how to push for projects and funds that her group and community at the pier badly need. Easily, she has earned for herself the distinction of being a trustworthy leader, a soft-spoken, calm and prayerful one at that.

At the height of one of many threats of eviction in the not so distant past, she rallied everyone in her community, including the hot-tempered male leaders, pacified them and packed them inside the chapel and outside the pier gates to stop, pause, and pray and pray and pray. God continues to hear their prayers; they are still at the port, their home, their place of work.

Mariter pushed herself further to learn and convinced other women in her community to manage waste materials into beautiful bags, trays and other useful items. Aside from vending, this recycling venture has brought them much-needed cash to meet their daily needs.

Mariter reminds us that Filipino women have certainly come a long way out of their gender and class entrapments to live more meaningful lives each day. Certainly, along with countless other women in this country and abroad, her struggles for freedom from poverty, from inequality, from government neglect continue. Yet, March 8 remains her day, the day women like her deserve to be celebrated and honored for not giving up and for showing all what peace and faith mean despite being in a troubled world.

Last Sunday was Migrants' Day. It was a day to celebrate the bravery and sacrifice of more than 8 million Filipino male and female migrants scattered throughout the world so that their families back home will be spared the insecurities and hardships of life in this troubled country.

Do most of our male and female migrants really leave behind their families and their homeland because honor awaits them at their destination? Do most of our migrants really leave, not out of hopelessness and desperation, but because the world recognizes and awaits their skills and talents?

This is at least the interpretation of a Filipino woman named Gloria. Perhaps, she has to be reminded about the real truth and painful plight of the lowly paid, maltreated domestic helpers, trafficked women, entertainers, and mail order brides as well as those caught in the crossfire in war-torn areas, those who brave the rough seas, insecure contracts, abusive work conditions and terms?

Perhaps she has to be told of the tale of an unidentified dead migrant worker in Japan who remains until now, unclaimed, neglected and uncared for at a Japanese police station. Left there since October last year, the Japanese police had contacted a Catholic parish priest this month that they will cremate the body of this unknown Filipino. Once cremated, there will be no family to send the ashes to. There will be a family that will forever wait for the homecoming of a migrant member who left but who never returned because death has banished and ended all his dreams and hopes for himself and his loved ones. May he rest in peace where he is now.

And may all women and migrants continue to be celebrated and honored by a grateful people and world beyond certain days of March each year.