December coming mid-way circle as Year 2023 comes to a close, brings out from the chests of Philippine domestic helpers and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) that long-kept feeling when previously in the native shores of their homes, the nostalgic sounds of “Silent night, holy night; all is calm, all is bright!” waft peacefully as they gather with their families.
Now working abroad, they still hear Silent Night, which all the more makes them pine for home.
Lucky will be the thousands of domestics and OFWs given the chance by their employers to pack their bags and go home for Christmas vacation, as stipulated under their contracts.
As for the other thousands who cannot make it as their jobs demand it, family reunion is virtually out of the picture.
Such is the dilemma of many in the ranks of what is called the Philippines greatest export. They can come home later for sure — but not this coming Christmas season.
For our compatriots – whether they come from Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and other regions – nostalgia (a suffering unappeased by yearning to return) is strong in their hearts as they hold on to the past by being homesick in a foreign land.
How often have they lain beneath strange roofs, thinking of home? And in wanting to see their families, they find their loneliness can make the loudest noise, like, “You, who are weary come home, come home, if, for this Christmas only!”
Such is the lot of the Filipino diaspora of the so-called “modern-day heroes and heroines.” It seems many countries hardly get by without our domestics and OFWs.
Nowadays, many nations have long resigned themselves to running households without maids or manservants. In many of Daily laborer’s travels, he found in some countries, are only now beginning to get along without the usual retinue of kitchen help, laundry women and errand boys.
Many are the reasons for this rather interesting turn of events. For one thing, maids and laundresses of recent vintage are no longer the ignorant, blindly-obedient servants of a past era. Then, a pre-employment of a few hundred pesos, rupees or baht could put a young, rural Filipina maiden in bondage for years.
Now, it is a totally different story. Filipino domestics and other OFWs have become more knowledgeable of their rights, having had more basic schooling. Due to their high education and proficiency in English, Filipino domestic helpers continue to be sought after despite a ban on placement in some specific countries.
In fact, Filipino house helps are considered a “prize catch” in many countries worldwide.
They have also become more ambitious, joining the employment bandwagon to other foreign lands. So, many countries, especially in Europe, Middle East, Australia and Canada, South Korea, Japan, to mention some, are advertising for Filipino help.
Naturally, Filipinos, Malaysians, Sri Lankans and Indonesians – to mention some again – seeing the chance of a lifetime materializing in some foreign household, have thrown off traditional timidity and have flown off to distant shores.
Which, naturally also, leave local home-fires burning without the usual “mama” or “papa” in dutiful attendance.
But these happy days for our domestics have been long in coming. Being a domestic in earlier years was no easy job. It was almost a 24-hour stint of sometimes gut-wrenching chores that ranged from the dreary to the obnoxious and from the relatively easy to the back-breaking.
Consider this listing, for instance, given by Salomina Agsimbay, formerly Filipino domestic helper, to Daily Laborer, although the list may not be representative of all places in Asia:
A reluctant domestic worker rises from bed at 4 or 4:30 a.m., and prepares breakfast, water plants or wash cars; sweeping the dining room floor and setting the breakfast table, clearing it then bringing other paraphernalia for the master’s departure, the kids schooling, pets feeding, etc.
Then before the domestic has taken her own breakfast, tidying up rooms, toilets and garage follows. This is repeated more or less, before and after every meal. Then to other duties like laundry, running errands, ironing of clothes, tending to the garden and other others. The days that follow become a cycle.
Particularly for Filipino women workers abroad, it is not a bed of roses. No doubt that many Filipino domestic helpers are happy with their employers, but there still remain those who suffer exploitation and abuse.
Many have returned home in desperation and at great financial loss. Many, not being covered by local laws, these Filipinos who suffer maltreatment and contract violation could only turn to their agents, the Philippine Embassy or welfare associations or pack up and go home if they could.
In the Middle East, for example, which imposes strict policies on women as a matter of custom and tradition, the situation is equally damnable. Filipino girls are “often the objects of sexual desire and abuse of the nationals, “the domestic helper lamented to Daily Laborer.
Aside from sexual harassment, documented reports and personal interviews unearthed cases of “hazardous working conditions.” These include: contract substitution, wage discrimination, ill treatment by employers and other offenses degrading to Filipino womanhood and to workers in general.
Contract substitution was one of the most serious complaints, many domestic helpers who talked with Daily Laborer, revealed. Overseas workers sign written contracts with their employers, setting forth their job description, working hours, definite wages and pay ranges and other terms and conditions.
But once they reach their destinations abroad, especially the domestics, they are reportedly obliged to sign another contract with disadvantageous provisions different from those stated in the original contract.
Thus, it is not surprising that someone originally hired as babysitter, for instance, ends up working as an all-around help.
Other employers confiscate their passports and visas to prevent them from transferring to other employers. This forces them to finish their contracts and receive lower wages as compared with those of other nationalities doing the same jobs.
“Because of maltreatment, workers begin to feel the loneliness and homesickness for the family, eventually affecting their health, psychologically and physiologically,” Agsimbay narrated.
But Daily Laborer thinks this has all changed – for the better. Now, Philippine domestics are a premium commodity whether in Great Britain, America, West Germany and other developed countries. OFWs, as the acronym implies, have become a rare breed of workers.
Daily Laborer remembers having a talk with an Australian colleague, Joseph Darton, who was sent to the Philippines last month to cover a conference on environment. He was not complaining about the Philippine domestic employed by his family in their home.
Darton is now satisfied that the Philippine domestic of today was a far cry from the days of long ago. Darton’s Filipino worker lives with them and at their beck and call, she had to be paid of all her benefits – minimum wage, overtime work, fringe benefits, etc.
How indeed, have today’s Philippine domestics metamorphosed. They can even have a day off, every week.
Before, Philippine domestics could not even talk with the neighborhood and would get severe tongue-lashing if she as so much peeped out the window. If she broke a plate or spilled the dressing, the cost was deducted from her wages.
That is, if she did not get a whack on the head or painful beating.
But the Philippine domestic helper of today has got it made, Daily Laborer and Agsimbay opine. And if the worker is one of the luckier ones who got contracted to work in, say, London, Amsterdam of Hong Kong, she becomes an instant member of the “dollar club.”
This is the colloquial expression pertaining to overseas workers who regularly transmit dollars’ home to the Philippines from employment abroad.
Outside of the stated abuses and anomalies, however, most of the women interviewed expressed satisfaction with their working and living conditions abroad. Laila Andolis, half-highlander and half-lowlander, said “They are determined to face whatever consequences on various aspects of their employment conditions.”
“We are there to meet these difficulties for the sake of the family, particularly the children to be provided with good education. And for us, Christmas is doing something a little extra – like not being able to come home to the Philippines this Yuletide – for someone special.”
Yes, indeed, for the Cordilleran or lowlander domestic helpers and OFWs in faraway countries where snow falls every Christmas, many cannot vacation to come home to celebrate Yuletide with their families.
But in those far-off lands, they still see the clear moonlight, frost on the window panes, and without taking long to undress, spring into bed between clean cold sheets, having done their work for the day and sink into peaceful slumber.
And when the morrow comes, they will read in the text messages sent by members of their families saying, “Merry Christmas, Mama! “or, “Merry Christmas Papa!”
In in reading those lovely messages from loved ones, these Filipino overseas workers feel in their bones of “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.”