NATONIN, Mountain Province – Repeated failures in one’s dreams to provide better living condition for their families should not serve as a deferent in realizing such verdant desire amidst emerging challenges that may transpire on the way to success.
For Francisca Nayassang-Mondeguing, 30, a former barangay secretary and clerk and a native of barangay Tongrayan, here, it took her thrice to be interviewed by separate employers before being successfully chosen to work as a farm worker in the Kumamoto-based Kira Foods Co., Ltd. Based in Japan. By the end of the month, Francisca will be celebrating her first year as an Overseas Filipino Worker, thanks to the Join Us for Progress (JUP): Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Program of the Dominguez family which is now entering its nth year of deploying qualified skilled workers from the different parts of Mountain Province to Japan for gainful employment.
Francisca is the sixth child of spouses Helen and John Nayassang, both farmers from Natonin town. She is married to Elmer Mondeguing, a native of Natonin and Ifugao where the couple is blessed with a 4-year-old son. Her husband works as a farm worker in the vegetable-producing town of Buguias, Benguet.
“I did not actually enjoy my childhood because I had to help my parents in their farm work every weekend. At a tender age, I already placed in my mind that I do not want my children to suffer the same difficulties that I experienced in the future, she stressed.
She was able to avail of the educational assistance program of the provincial government that allowed her to enroll in the 2-year computer secretarial course at the Xijen College of Mountain Province in which is around four to five hours from her hometown when the road leading to their place was not yet improved. However, she still experienced difficulties in going to school because of the limited resources as the educational assistance was not enough to cover her needs, and she used her free time for some part-time jobs to augment her needs. She and some of her classmates did laundry jobs for their instructors and other individuals needing their services. If she had no laundry work, she spent her vacant time helping her townmates who have stalls at the Bontoc public market just to have some money for her food for the week.
“I was just so lucky that time that I had some townmates who helped me but I had to work for it. I said to myself that I had to hurdle these challenges if I have to succeed in my studies so I have to become a stronger and better person in the future. I complimented my hard work with prayers to keep me going in these difficulties one at a time,” Francisca added.
After successfully completing her computer secretarial course, she was immediately employed as the barangay secretary in her home place from 2015 to 2018 When there was a change of leadership in their barangay, she was relegated to a barangay clerk from 2018 up to the end of 2022.
Francisca narrated that right after the May 9, 2022 elections, there was information that the Jobs, Jobs, Jobs program of the Dominguez family was interested in individuals who want to apply for the program but will have to undergo a 4-month Nihongo language training in Sabangan or Tadian towns before undergoing interviews by prospective employers.
“Actually, many people had doubts if the family will push through with the said program after Engr. Jupiter Dominguez lost his congressional bid. But former punong barangay Aloy Banasan encouraged me to try my luck by attending the language training and see what will happen after I have completed it,” she quipped.
She then made special arrangements with the barangay so that she would not yet resign as a barangay clerk for her to use her honorarium in attending the said training in Tadian which was the one that was opened at that time. Luckily, punong barangay Banasan agreed to her proposed arrangement that she will be going home on Saturdays to finish the needed documents that have to be accomplished while attending the Nihongo language training during weekdays.
“It was actually difficult because I had to travel to Tadian during Sundays and travel back to Tongrayan during Fridays to be able to work on Saturdays. It was patience and perseverance that served as my driving force to be able to complete the language training while being able to accomplish my work in the barangay,” Francisca explained.
The JUP: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs program of the Dominguez family is being implemented 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.
Francisca stipulated that despite the hardships that she experienced in having to complete the language training, she was able to hurdle the challenges and complete the course that lined her up for an interview by prospective Japanese employers in the PHGIC office in Malate, Manila.
Ironically, she was not selected as one of the lucky farm workers to be deployed to Japan that is why she had to wait for another chance considering that there were some employers who were looking for workers from the pool that had been prepared by the PHGIC. Again, Francisca was not so lucky in her second attempt as she did not pass the standards of the employer that conducted the second interview.
“I did not lose hope despite having failed twice in the interviews. I continued to pray hard that God will give me the right employer so that I will be able to help my family move out from the shackles of poverty in the future,” she said.
She again joined another batch of interviewees from the Tadian Nihongo language training center who were interviewed by another Japanese employer in Manila and she felt good right after the interview that is why she continued to pray hard that she will be the lucky one that time considering that her failure to pass the interview twice should be enough to be able to achieve her dreams and aspirations for her family that will be left behind in her hometown.
“When we were called back to the room where we were earlier interviewed for the announcement on who will be selected, I saw the Japanese employer talking to the head of the partner company and I was able to read from their lips my assigned number that is why I was already confident that I was the one that will be selected. I patiently waited for the announcement and true to what I was able to read from their lips, it was my number that was announced to be employed by the said company. I expressed my gratitude to the Japanese employer and the local counterpart before we left for home,” Francisca exclaimed.
She was able to be successfully deployed to Japan and joined her employer in May 2023 right after completing a course to master the Nihongo language at the Sage Asian Language Center.
Francisca claimed that she expected that the farm work that she will be engaged in is similar to the work being done in the local farms and that she was ready for whatever hard work that will be experienced while in the foreign land.
“I was surprised that our work as farm workers is not that taxing and heavy unlike the farm work being done in our country. Our work is made easy by the machine that aids us do our work. Instead of planting or weeding in the farms, we are actually engaged in pacing vegetables such as carrots, Chinese peaches, among others, that is why we are not burdened,” she emphasized.
Francisca said that what is difficult in her current job is that having to stand for long hours although she and her companions were able to adjust to the situation and that they are now enjoying their mechanized work in the company. In terms of having to carry heavy load, she said that they are only allowed to carry a limited load as it will be the machines that will do the rest of their work.
The 30-year OFW asserted that she was able to adjust to the situation in the workplace and that she was able to overcome her home sickness with the help of her companions as she is with a fellow farmer from Sabangan, Mountain Province in the company quarters which they are renting.
Upon arrival in Kumamoto, Japan, Francisca said that she had difficulty in adjusting to speaking the Nihongo language with her co-workers in the company. She again considers that she was lucky to have a very supportive leader and Japanese co-workers because they patiently taught her how to fluently speak the language until she was able to familiarize herself in doing so and eventually had established a harmonious working relationship with them to date.
Francisca expressed her family’s gratitude to the Dominguez family for such a noble program that allowed them to work overseas because of the free Nihongo language training and the assistance that was extended to them in providing them with a good employer. She said that there were many people who doubted the sincerity of the family in pursuing the program at that time because of the negative results of the elections but the family still pursued the same and that they are testaments to the benefits of the program which they are now reaping.
Michelle Banos Talabis, the Tadian Nihongo language training center coordinator, described Francisca as a diligent and attentive trainee that is why whatever her achievement in her current work is a product of her good virtues that she carried with her.
She learned from Francisca’s townmates that the OFW has already significant investments for her family in their place that speaks well of how she wisely manages the resources that she is getting from her overseas work, thus, the same should serve as an inspiration and motivation of other young OFWs and their families to wisely use the resources being earned to provide their families with better living condition in the future.
According to Francisca, overtime work in the company is inevitable, especially when there are numerous orders of vegetables that have to be packed, that is why she and her companions love to work for an extra time to maximize their presence in the foreign land to earn income for the future of their families.
She also maintains continuous contact with her family for her to update them on her current condition and for her to be updated on what is happening in the country and their place of origin and the work place of her husband. She leaves the discretion to her husband whether or not to give up his work in Buguias and go back to Natonin to help her parents because she believes in his disposition in life to work while the body is strong.
Francisca hopes that her story will leave some lessons for upcoming OFWs for them to be able to achieve their aspirations of working overseas and provide for the needs of their families, especially those who could relate to her story having come from extreme poverty and with the aspiration to provide better living condition for her family in the future.
She was also able to get pieces of advice from her sister who worked in Japan on how to deal with the language and culture barriers that paved the way for her to hurdle the language training and the interviews that were conducted before being deployed to Japan. By Dexter A. See