SABANGAN, Benguet – Being patient in dealing with the challenges of life coupled with the ability to grab every opportunity that presents itself will definitely help in bringing people to greater heights with gainful employment among others.
For Decirie Ayodoc-Atiwag, 31, a licensed teacher and a native of barangay Losad, the difficulty in getting a teaching job in the different local governments and the education department because of too much politics convinced her to immediately grab the opportunity of having an overseas work even as a farm worker trainee which now serves as her family’s bread and butter for more than a year now. Decirie is the fort of six children of spouses Caridad, a farmer and Leonardo Ayodoc, who is a laborer. She is the eldest of the two females in the family. Her three older brothers are already gainfully employed working in different places inside and outside the province while her younger sister is applying for a job in the government and that her youngest brother just completed his junior high school studies and is set to pursue his senior high school in his preferred school.
“Life in the rural areas is really challenging. At a tender age, we have to help our parents do farm work for us to earn for our daily subsistence. We have to spend most of our time helping our parents instead of enjoying our childhood with our fellow children in our community,” Decirie stressed.
Decirie was able to complete her basic education studies in public schools in the municipality before taking up the course Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education Major in English at the State-run Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC). However, she had to stop pursuing the said course when she was in second year college because her parents had difficulty in sustaining her studies, thus, she had to help them in their farm work just to earn and save for the future. Subsequently, she also got married that prevented her from pursuing her studies even as she wanted to do so because she already had a child that she had to take care of aside from working in the farm. At present, she has two children, an 11-year old grade schooler and a 5-year old kindergarten pupil, who are both males.
“I decided to finish my studies with the help of my husband but it was really difficult to balance the situation of going to school and taking care of the needs of our growing family. I had to persist and persevere because it was inculcated to us that education is the best inheritance that parents could give their children because it cannot be easily stolen or taken away from us,” she added.
Decirie was able to graduate her chosen course at age 29 but what is important to her was that she had a degree that she could use to have gainful employment. The next step that she had to hurdle was the licensure examination for teachers which she had to take for her to achieve her dream of becoming a teacher and help mold the youth to become responsible citizens of our country. She was able to complete a scholarship on agriculture from the province’s Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) which was conducted in the agency’s provincial training center based in the municipality.
After completing the short-term training course in agriculture, she narrated that all the trainees were informed that there was an upcoming free Nihongo language training that will be conducted in the locality that is why we immediately grabbed the rare opportunity as it will be a big advantage for us to be given such training for future work in the foreign land. The Nihongo language training is part of the Join Us for Progress: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs program of the Dominguez family in partnership with the Manila-based Philippine Human Resource Global Information Center (PHGIC) and the Bulacan-based Sage Asian Language Center.
Under the said program, qualified and selected individuals will be given a 3-year special training visa that could be extended up to five years at the choice of the beneficiary and even up to ten years depending on their performance in their work.
“I saw the slim chance of being gainfully employed in a foreign land but I also believe that it will be a difficult journey to be chosen as one of the beneficiaries of the program due to our enormous number of interested applicants. I said to myself that I have to make good in the language training and the succeeding processes before being selected to be one of the qualified overseas workers,” she said.
Decirie admitted that it was really difficult to participate in the Nihongo language training because of the big difference between the local and foreign languages and it took for them to adjust and be familiar with the lessons being taught to us by our mentors in the TESDA provincial training center. She described their stay in the training center as conducive for the activity but the trainees were surprised when they were being allegedly driven out of the center because there were some complaints from self-styled politicians and some interest groups that the facility cannot be used for private initiatives like the ongoing language training.
“It is unfortunate that we were caught between the feud of some politicians and interest groups that is why our training was nearly jeopardized. We were just so lucky that we were able to consolidate our efforts to remedy the situation that is why we were able to continue with the online training even if the situation was no longer conducive for such. When we were undergoing the training in the TESDA training center, we were able to avail of the agency’s facilities and equipment to our convenience. But when we were driven out, we had to make do with limited space and rely on our mobile phones just to complete the remaining time of our training for us to move on” Decirie stipulated.
Another problem that she encountered while she was undergoing the Nihongo language training was the schedule of her review classes for the conduct of the licensure examination for teachers by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) because it was the first face to face exam that will be conducted right after the COVID-19 pandemic. She claimed that she could not afford to miss the online Nihongo language lessons and her review classes for the licensure examination for teachers that is why she had to be creative during the conflicts of schedule. Decirie disclosed that she had to always make sure that she was connected to her Nihongo language training lessons while attending the prescribed review classes. Luckily, she was able to hurdle the said difficulty and was able to take the licensure examination and complete the language training successively.
“When I received the good news that I passed the licensure examination for teachers, I attempted to apply for whatever available vacant teaching positions in the local governments and the education department but it was so difficult to be hired even if one is qualified for the said position, except when one enjoys the backing of influential politicians. Supposedly, working overseas was one of the options available for me but with what happened, I told myself that whichever presents itself and which will come first will be the one that I will take irregardless of what it will take me,” she said.
Decirie and her fellow trainees, Aimee Grail Awing, Venus Lagomen, Francisca Nayassang, among others were able to attend the interviews conducted by prospective Japanese employers interested in hiring Filipinos for farm work in their companies. She said that in her first interview, she actually did not pass but she considered the same as an experience in how to deal with similar interviews that will be conducted by similar employers in the future. The 31-year old OFW was again able to be invited to attend a second interview conducted by prospective Japanese employers but again, she was not so lucky to be selected as one of the successful applicants for the available farm work in the foreign land. Her mother advised her that if she will not be able to pass future interviews, then she should already consider aggressively pursuing her application for available teaching positions irregardless of tenure as what is important is that she will have a definite source of income to help in uplifting the living condition of her growing family.
According to her, when her third attempt to be interviewed was schedule, she already made up her mind that if she will fail, she call it quits and instead strive to look for available local employment even if the compensation will not be that lucrative but what is important is that she will have a definite source of income. Again, the prospective applicants, including her, were interviewed by another set of Japanese employers in Manila and when they were called back to the room where the interview was undertaken, she kept her fingers crossed on her chances of getting a work overseas.
“It was Aimee’s number that was first called and I saw how happy she was at that time. I remained calm hoping that I will be the next to be called so that I will be able to make a big diffidence in our family’s way of life. Luckily, it was my number that was called and I was also overjoyed like our fellow interviewees that were earlier called and selected. I immediately called up my younger sister to inform her about the good news and she was elated to learn about my initial success in having a gainful employment overseas,” she stipulated.
Her mother also accepted her destiny in Japan and wished her the best of luck for whatever the work that will be waiting for her in the foreign land. She claimed that it is her mother that is taking care of her children who will be left behind as they are studying in the Lagan Elementary School.
Prior to being deployed in Japan, the selected trainees had to undergo several months of mastering the Nihongo language at the Sage Asian language Center in Bulacan for them to be able to efficiently speak the language. She explained that the master class was required because those who were earlier deployed cannot actually efficiently speak the language that is why they had some problems in dealing with their employers and co-workers
Decirie, who is now a farm worker of the Kumamoto-based Kira Foods Co., Ltd., said that upon arrival in Japan, she and her fellow OFWs were fetched by the language training company for them to further undergo a rigid one month Nihongo training to ensure that they master the language so that they will not encounter serious problems when in their respective workplaces. She said that while undergoing the training, they were able to receive allowances to defray their food and lodging expenses.
In the workplace, Decirie emphasized that she is part of the team that work in the first stage of the process in the company where they are in charge of selecting the good vegetables that will be fed to the machines that slice the same. Their work involves carrying the vegetables and sorting out the same before loading them in the machines. When they do not have work outside, they are being called to help their colleagues inside to help clean the machines in time for further operations.
“We are grateful that we have a supportive and understanding employer and colleagues who guided us through the flow of work and how to efficiently speak the Nihongo language. We were able to immediately adjust to the work in the company and we now enjoy what we are doing because it will all be for the benefit of our own families” she said.
She always get in touch with her parents to get updates on the status of her children inside and outside school and she is happy that they are doing good and are not always asking about her because it might also affect her performance of her tasks among others.
Decirie expressed her family’s gratitude to the Dominguez family for providing them the rare opportunity of having a gainful employment in Japan through one of the most important aspects of the work which is the free Nihongo language training that was conducted right in the municipality that entailed least expenses on their part. She said that with her initial earnings, she was able to pay for her debt that was incurred while working on their deployment overseas among others that allowed them to land in a good job overseas.
Decirie hopes that whatever learnings that will be taken from her story should be used by prospective OFWs to succeed in their desire to work abroad and help in uplifting the living condition of their families.
She advised her fellow OFWs to value the importance of having benefitted from the program and work hard to comply with their respective contracts with their employers so as not to destroy the image of people being employed to have decent work abroad so that the noble intention of the same will not be affected in the future. By Dexter A. See
