The Filipina is More Than a Cleaning Woman
It is saddening to see Filipinas in The Netherlands, Hong Kong and all over the world employed as domestic helpers. They are working their tails off so that they can send money back home for their children’s education, for their parent’s and relatives’ sustenance or to build decent houses for their families. Houses which they can never otherwise dream of nor afford owning had they stayed in their own country.
Some risk staying illegally once their employment contracts expire because the threat of deportation if they are caught is a better alternative than returning back to the poverty-like conditions they have been trying to extricate themselves and their families from. These undocumented Filipinas survive by doing odd jobs; sometimes cleaning ten to twelve houses a week while others are employed full-time in certain households.
In an article written by Jeff Israely of Time magazine, he mentions that a cleaning woman is often generically referred to as a “Filippina” in Italy.
Cleaning other people’s houses and toilets is not the greatest achievement any woman would want for herself in her lifetime. But she goes ahead and does it in the hope of providing a better future for her children and family. She sacrifices her own needs and wants and gives up what she has dreamed for herself.
Why do Filipinas choose to work abroad as maids? The failure of the Philippine government to provide educational opportunities and jobs for its citizens has brought about an increased migration of Filipinas working as domestic helpers in foreign countries. The country’s leaders actually encourage this exodus because these women have become a vital means of sustaining the country’s economy through their remittances.
It is appalling to note that none other than Philippine president Gloria Arroyo herself has touted the Filipina domestic helpers abroad as supermaids! As head of state and as a woman, she should be championing women’s rights and initiating employment opportunities for them so that they never have to leave their homes to work overseas. To proclaim them as supermaids shows a complete failure on her part to improve the conditions of her fellow Filipinas and an utter lack of compassion for the families missing their mothers, daughters, wives and sisters.
No one dreams of becoming a cleaning woman when they grow up. Although there is nothing wrong with it, and it may be a decent job, it is not something anybody will aspire to given the choice. Every person has their life’s purpose cut out for them. Whatever that may be, it should be about reaching one’s highest potential.
Given the right support, education and development program, the very qualities which make the Filipina a preferred maid overseas can be put to better use serving her own country in a more dignified form of employment.
Hi Jocelyn, am not really sure what you mean here. Maybe you can elaborate a bit?
Thanks,
Melinda
Dear Melinda,
What you qouted about filipina as a cleaning woman in abroad…i call it as white flag to a red carpet entrance of hallway of hard currency
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for your comment. I admire your stand on the issue/s. It is quite complicated and also tough when the choice you have to make is between love for country or going hungry. It is a painful and huge sacrifice to leave one’s family behind in order to give them a better life than what they can find in the country. I am hopeful that someday, all these will change and families will be reunited once again.
Melinda
Bottom line is really about priorities. My wife and I promised each other and chose to stay in the Philippines. For us, there is one business that truly matters and cares more about – family. True, life here is challenging but not all too depressing at the same time. If Filipinos & Filipinas alike are patient enough to give themselves and their country a chance, surely things will also work out for them as well. However, many took the ‘other’ road and chose the more serious consequence of being far from their loved ones.
as long as our government remains as what it is now, and as long as we (filipinos) as a people keep being indifferent to whats happening to the Philippines, this image of the Filipina will be unchanged; sad
My dearest Debby,
Thank you for this bull’s eye description & analysis of the demographic, psychographic and behavioural profiles of the Filipina cleaning woman abroad and the family she’s left behind. You said it all so right… very true, and very sad, and very very depressing conditions. :(
Just engaging in the conversation is the first step towards working on solutions I guess, in our own little ways. Your two pesos worth certainly goes a long way. :)
Melinda
My dear Melinda,
Wonderful to hear from you and read your blog.
Ever since I can remember, from young, we Filipinos have been dealt a bad hand wherever we go overseas. And mind you, it has nothing to do with us. Nature or nurture – think about it. We can spend hours debating on the subject. But let me share my thoughts.
Yes, it’s true everyone who has a Filipina cannot see life without Teoping or Honey, caring for their family and dogs, and the house. They have cast their lot the day they flew out of our airports, giving the recruiters their first months salary as their finders fee. Nothing wrong with wanting a better quality of life. Or does this lead to having it?
Because of the standard of living that our governments over the years have forced us to live under, has made the ‘easy way out’ a wonderful solution – this is the TNT ( tago ng tago) method of getting oneself overseas, in order to send funds back home and do the ‘right thing’ for our families. Sacrifice.
However, this method has also made it increasingly difficult, as well as made a bad mark on our people, to get visas to go anywhere in the world, except for our ASEAN brothers and Morocco. Being domestic helpers was the easy way to change not only the life of the person who makes the sacrifice to leave hearth and home, but hopefully, to better the lives of Nanay, Tatay, the children who need a better education so they don’t suffer the same fate, and whoever else they left behind.
What was not anticipated is what has now become a reality in Filipino society back home.
Those who send money back from overseas have created the largest underground banking system in our country – check our friends, Melinda – their name is on almost every single corner of the 7,000+ islands, delivering home safely and efficiently hard earned foreign currency – cash of almost 15 million Filipinos overseas – daily. Nothing wrong against this – they saw a business opportunity and made it work.
But what of those recipients of the funds? – Junior is in high school, takes the bus because he can to school, and hopes to get into a call center to make 5,000 pesos a month when he graduates. He has better clothes than the other boys in his barangay, and maybe this Christmas, Mama will send enough to buy an iPod, to make him the envy of his friends, besides the latest Nokia, which his girlfriend covets. Next thing you know, inggitan sets in, and the neighbourhood druggie, high on shabu, stabs Junior 15 times and kills him one night to get the iPod and the Nokia, to fund his next fix.
Are you getting the picture of what this has also done to our society?
And what to say about the husband? Ay, because his wife has been gone for 2 years – we all know that long distance relationships are hard to maintain – has taken up a girlfriend(s) and funds her new wardrobe with his wife’s remittances. And uses the household money for sabong. And he gets his fix because he is a man with basic needs fueled by quatro cantos or Tanduay. He does not have a job, and prefers to tend to his cocks for the next sabunggan, where the prize is 3,000 pesos this Sunday. No worries, he can wait for his next Pera Padala to get more money is he loses and has to eat his cock for dinner. Pardon the pun.
Junior’s sister, Baby, because she lacks motherly guidance, has gotten herself knocked up due to our state religion, and does not know where to go – her boyfriend beats her up when he’s lasing, but she stays on because she loves him; she thinks she can change him, and now she carries his child.
Later on, when Baby gives birth, and realizes what a mess she’s made of her life, looks in the mirror and sees that she is still attractive, she gets in with a crowd of girls who feel that taking money from lasing dirty old men in discos for new clothes, shoes and a Louis Vuitton fake bag is ok…………guess what ? – future escort, going from country to country in Asia, since that’s all she can get to, plying her wares, all for a better life.
What about the street children who try their damnest best to look so kawawa, and carry babies who are not theirs and drug the babies so they sleep, as they schlep on windows of cars for a few coins on Roxas, Buendia and around Malate and South Super? It’s all a scam – I call it organized begging.
I’ve met NGO’s telling me that this is the next problem that we face in the Metro – 6 generation ( or maybe even 9 by this writing time) of street dwellers, those who live in the streets, in makeshift homes out of Kleenex carton, who think that beating women is fine, who love sniffing bags of rugby to quell hunger pains because there’s no food on the table in their hovel off Roxas, that incest is ok, and begging is actually a profession, and not getting a proper job. Who needs education – gastos lang – the street will take care of me.
Education nowadays does not mean the goatskin anymore – it’s the IT diploma which will get one into a call center……..the other extreme is why be a doctor, when nurses or caregivers are in big demand in Canada. Doctors training as nurses. Is that low or what?
The NSWD actually needs proof from both parents to let the child travel and go overseas – have we sold our children out too? This is why there are these rules in place. Children trafficking. That is low.
Education, and social welfare should be the main priority of our government – it was in Marcos’ time and I haven’t seen any improvements since.
We are a great race, but until we resolve the root of our problems, we’ll never get out of our rut. I can’t give any solutions for these examples, but I can tell you all sincerely that these are all first-hand accounts of where our country’s malaise is.
My 2 pesos worth.
Cheers,
Debby
Dina Abdullah Enriquez
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