Where are the unsung heroes?

In the streets of Manila. They are roaming, walking, holding up placards that tell their grievances. They rally in the streets, asking the President for just wages to compensate for hard times. Only two weeks have passed since people saw these unsung heroes on their television sets.

One public school teacher said directly to the camera, matagal na kaming humihingi ng dagdag sa sweldo. Hanggang ngayon, wala pa rin. (We are asking for an increase in wages but up to now, we still dont have any.) This is quite a clich for a third world country like the Philippines. Though this is a clich, it is still a problem that the society is dealing with.

Sweldo ang hinihingi namen hindi additional benefits, (We are asking for our salaries, not additional benefits.) another teacher wailed. Recently, the government gave an additional benefit of 50,000 pesos to lend each public teacher. These teachers can repay it at 6% interest rate yearly. Most teachers believe that this cannot guarantee them anything; they gave the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo an astounding grade of 5 because of her little efforts to increase their salaries.

With the continuous inflation of prices, experts believe that hunger is expected to be served on every Filipino familys table, and more and more Filipinos are also expected to pack up and leave the country.

According to a Migration News website, some 10 to 15 percent of the estimated 200,000 teachers hired each year in the US are foreigners, often from the Philippines and India. Most are hired to teach math and science subjects in inner-city schools. Roberto Obet Pascual, a son of a Filipino teacher based in New Jersey, is one of the many children left behind by their parents to seek the land considered by many as overflowing with milk and honey.

Mag-iisang taon na si mama ngayon sa States. Ok naman kami ngayon at least medyo mas angat kesa noon, (Mamas in the States almost a year now. We have better living conditions compared to before.) said Obet.

Obet recalled that before her mother went abroad, they had to borrow money from neighbors to arrange a job in the United States. Malaki ang gastos, mahigit 300,000 pesos ang nagastos ni mama. (We had great expenses. Mama spent more than 300,000 pesos.)

The Los Angeles Times reported that recruiting companies established to bring Filipino nurses are now widening their business to include Filipino teachers, wherein they charge these teachers $7,500 (420, 000 pesos) each for the placement fee.

Talagang kayod kami para mabuo yun kasi iniisip namen na ang importante lang si mama makapunta na sa States tapos tsaka na yung bayaran. (We had to work our butts off just to reach the 300,000-peso amount so that she could go to the United States.)

Milagros Pascual, the mother of Obet, was a public school teacher in Mandaluyong, a city in Manila when she decided to leave the country because of pressing financial problems ever since her husband died two years ago. She is now teaching at a primary school in New Jersey.

Mas ok ngayon kahit papaano kasi ngayon yung kinikita ni mama talagang walang sinabi dun sa kinikita niya sa dati niyang pinagtatrabahuhan. Alaga siya sa sweldo kasi per oras ang bayaran. (Moms pay is better now compared to before. She is being paid per hour.)

Migration News also stated that most of the teachers arrive in debt, owing the $7,500 fee, and then acquire more debt to pay rent.

Nung mga unang araw niya doon, hindi siya masyadong tumatawag kasi nga iniisip niya yung pambili ng call card- pandagdag padala na lang daw at pambayad utang. Ngayon mas maluwag na konti. (During her first few months in the States, she seldom called us because she wanted to save enough money to pay our debts. She said that instead of spending for her calls, she would just save that amount.)

Obet said that her mother had a big adjustment when she arrived in New Jersey. Aside from the cold weather and the different environment, she had a hard time dealing with her students.

Minsan nagsasabi ng sama ng loob kasi iba pa rin daw dito. Doon daw parang ka-level lang niya mga estudyante niya. E ngayon, medyo sanay na daw siya. Iniisip na lang niya yung kikitain para sa amin. (Mama often tells us her problems with her students. She says that teaching in the United States is harder compared to here. She is not respected as a teacher; rather she is being treated by her students as one of them. But now, she is slowly adapting with these changes. She only thinks about the huge amount she is getting.)

Sadly, while most teachers who have gone to the United States still practice their profession, a good number of former Filipino public school teachers that are now residing in America have not been so lucky.

Si nanay at tatay public highschool teachers sila dito pero nung naging immigrant sila sa Hawaii, hindi rin nila nagamit yung pagiging teachers nila kasi kailangan daw maipasa nila yung mga tests dun bago sila maging teachers, (My mother and father are public high school teachers here but when they became immigrants in Hawaii, they did not practice their profession because they did not pass the requirements for teachers.) said Claire Kleng Magbanua, daughter of former teachers Celia and Rommel.

Many Filipino teachers often end up in mid-size school districts in Southern California because they are highly qualified licensed teachers, the Migration News reported. While Filipinos abroad often do not take the qualifying exams because it is costly, some took jobs that do not require it, and one of them is babysitting, like Klengs parents.

Ibang trabaho na lang pinasukan nila. Nagbababysit si nay, si tay naman nasa factory. (They had a different job in Hawaii. My mothers a baby-sitter while my dad works in a factory.)

Celia Magbanua, the mother of Kleng, was a public school teacher when she and her husband, Rommel, decided to try their luck in the United States. Celia has been babysitting for the last four years in Hawaii.

Though Kleng said that her mother misses being a teacher, she could not do anything because of the cost of the lengthy process and tests for qualifying to be a teacher.

Ganun din naman daw, per oras din yung bayaran kaya ok lang kahit anong trabaho dun. Yun nga lang minsan pag umuuwi sila dito dalaw sila ng dalaw sa dati nilang pinagtuturuan. Namimiss daw nila gumawa ng lesson plan. (My parents said that their present jobs are okay for them because they are being paid per hour. Though sometimes when they come home to the Philippines, they miss being teachers. They go to the school where they used to teach.)

Despite the good living conditions of these people, many Filipinos would opt to go back had the salaries been high here in the Philippines. If not for low wages, they would have chosen not to work and live abroad.

According to the Migration News website, the starting pay for the teachers in US is usually $30,000 (1, 680,000 pesos) a year compared to $5,000 (280, 000 pesos) in the Philippines.

Ok naman daw sila dun. Pero kung sana lang daw maganda sahod ng mga teachers dito at maganda yung trato, mas pipiliin pa rin daw nila ditong magtrabaho. Teachers sila eh. (They assured us that theyre doing fine there. But if the salaries are good in the Philippines, they would prefer to stay than leave.)

References:

Migration News- http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/comments.php?id=2804_0_3_0

The Los Angeles Times- www.latimes.com

ABS-CBN News- http://www.abs-cbnnews.com




According to a government agency that deals with employment overseas, some 2,500 Filipinos leave the country everyday to work abroad. A total of 7 million Filipinos are spread throughout the world, legal and illegal. The highest number of Filipinos working abroad is still in the United States with 300,000.

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