Paying tribute to outstanding OFW families

Last Wednesday, in an idyllic resort in Tacloban, we, as board of judges of OWWA’s Annual Search for OFWs Outstanding Families for Region 8, conferred a Very Special Award to two Model Families of two Filipino Migrant Workers, one land-based OFW and another seaborne. The two will represent Eastern Visayas in the national awards. By the looks of it, we believe that they will make it there, considering their outstanding performance both in employment and in family life. The special conferment ceremony was graced by the young and dynamic Governor of Leyte, Jericho Petilla and the passionate Mayor Alfred Romualdez, with his beautiful wife, Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez, who is also a councilor in this regional capital. Everyone knows that the Romualdezes do not see eye to eye with the Petillas on political matters, but in that occasion, they set aside partisanship and joined hands with the Department of Labor and the private sector in paying tribute to the families of our OFWs.

 Indeed, nowadays, it is extremely difficult for our migrant workers to maintain a healthy balance between the demands of oversea labor, on the one hand, and the duties and obligations as head of the family, on the other hand. Empirical data indicate that many families have been broken and marriages shattered as a result of outward labor migration. Either they end up unsuccessful in their work abroad due to their fixations on the demands and needs of the family, or they abandon their family in their focus on and commitment to their work. Many spouses have turned to infidelity and vices as defense mechanisms and children have become drug dependents, juvenile delinquents and petty criminals. Incest and teenage pregnancies, immoral acts and heinous crimes have turned from bad to worse due to the absence of fathers and mothers, in the pursuit of the almighty dollars.

 The billions of dollars in remittances will never be enough to repair the damage.

 When I was assigned in Malaysia as labor attache, I witnessed how husbands working there are struggling very hard to keep their marriages intact, while they never rested in trying to earn Malaysian ringgits to send to their wives and children. They too had to evade the temptations of the flesh. In my capacity as labor diplomat, I put up a training center where I gave free Sunday classes to more than 500 OFWs every semester with some 50 Filipino expats teaching, without pay, some useful courses in computer education, physical therapy, basic nursing, arts and crafts, dressmaking and even ballroom dancing. They were learning new skills and enhancing their competitive edge, while meeting other OFWs. I also taught them Basic Laws for Filipinos, empowering them with laws on labor, immigration, marriages, and property relations. That was my humble contribution to help the OFWs and save the families of migrant workers.

 When I was transferred to Kuwait, I put up a paralegal clinic and psycho-social center, partnering with volunteer Filipino organizations and Church-based associations. We visited sick OFWs in hospitals and in many detention centers every weekend. I gave out free seminars on basic laws and character building. I also managed a center where 350 to 400 run-away domestic helpers were sheltered, fed, and given emotional, psychological and spiritual support and legal assistance. My wife was the head of volunteer counselors and I gave legal and paralegal assistance. It was hard to make both ends meet when I had to feed 400 women with a budget that is allocated for only 50 persons. But I survived Kuwait and it is generally known that when you make it there, you can make it anywhere. And let the records show that preserving the family of OFWs was one of my top advocacies.

 Then they transferred me to Central Taiwan. There, I partnered with the Maryknoll Fathers and Sisters in caring for our migrant workers. My most important activity was helping the Mission Society of the Philippines in putting up and managing the STELLA MARIS CENTER of the Diocesan Apostleship of The Seas. We took care of seafarers who stopped by the Taichung Port. Instead of going to girlie shows and beer houses, we had a center where spiritual, social, sports and intellectual pursuits are offered for free.

It is thus apropos for OWWA and the Department of Labor to focus on the Family of the Migrant Workers as the center of government assistance and intervention. Labor migration came about and will continue to dominate the socio-economic struggles of our nation for the decades to come, because of, and in order to, help the family. It is therefore the greatest irony to think that the family is the number one casualty of labor migration. Last Wednesday, I felt a special joy in my heart when we awarded two families from Biliran, Leyte and Samar. To me, preserving the family and upholding it is the most important thing that one can do anytime, anywhere. I am proud of what I have done and what our government is doing along this line. Even politicians can see eye to eye when it comes to family. Don’t you think so?