Migrant's Focus Magazine: Issue #2     Profile #3: Twice Swindled On the twelfth day, she passed out and was rushed to the hospital due to over work and hunger. But that is only the coup-de-grace of a long string of mishaps which befell Aileen Baldiray. What led her to such an unfortunate condition merits telling. The eldest of a family of nine, 21 year old Aileen persevered to help her parents and siblings. At the age of twelve, she was already earning P1,000 as a maid in Cavite, south of Manila. The money was spent for her schooling and to augment the family's income. Her father, an odd-jobber and her mother, a seasonal midwife, couldn't spare for daily needs. But she was being sexually harassed which forced her to leave employment. She then shifted from work to work - in factories, in shops - earning less than the minimum wage. In 1997, a demolition squad entered their community and started bulldozing their houses. With no steady income, and no roof over their heads, the Baldiray family opted to fight back. Together with 14 other households, they stood their ground in the face of violent harassment. They rejected the P1,000 offer for relocation in a far flung area. Because of this class confrontation, Aileen seriously involved herself in conscienticizing the youth from other urban poor communities like theirs. But in 1998, her father got sick. This burdened Aileen more since she only got a series of contractual employment, lasting a maximum of five months, for P178 a day, less than the legislated minimum wage. It was really hard to survive in the cities. Living in Pasay, Metro Manila, Aileen had few options - get contractual jobs or face unemployment. Another option pressed upon her. A friend gave her the calling card of a recruitment agency supposedly hiring for domestic work abroad. She grabbed the chance. This would start the domino effect for Aileen's misfortunes. A certain Letty posed as her recruiter. Letty assured her of employment and told that she'd take care of her. On September 17, 1998, at 6 in the morning, she was already in a queue in front of the said recruitment agency. There were around 50 people, many coming from provinces outside Manila. It was raining then. She filled up a registration form for free and waited for her interview. A Chinese woman barraged her with question. Why did she want to work in Hong Kong? She's too young. Did she know that Chinese families wanted maids with experience? Did she know anything about child rearing? How about domestic chores? Aileen, exuding with confidence brought by her experiences in working and family upkeep, passed the five-minute interview outrightly. She was asked to report back to the agency the following day. Upon her return, she was told that she needed a passport and a down payment of P10,000. Without them, the agency would not process her papers. This presented a dilemma for Aileen. Her family didn't know about her gamble with overseas work. Driven by the perceived opportunities of earning dollars, she confessed her plans to her father. At 15% monthly interest, her father was able to borrow from relatives enough for the down payment. It was a good thing that her midwife mother recently earned P1,800 for aiding a neighbor's childbirth. With that, she was on her way to acquire her passport. Her parents willingly helped her, knowing that her dreams were paramount. Before she could get a passport, however, she had to fulfill a lot of requirements. She needed a residence certificate (worth P15), a voter's registration certificate (worth P30), a police clearance (P50), an authenticated birth certificate (P20). These she got after moving from one government agency to another, and after two weeks of queuing and waiting. At the Department of Foreign Affairs, she had her passport "rushed". This means that she had to pay P750 plus P60 for pictures so that she could get the passport ready after a week. Aileen brought the down payment and her passport to the agency. She was then asked to get a medical check-up which cost her an additional P1,800. This included a physical exam, a psychological test, a drug test and pregnancy test. Her recruiter, Letty, then accompanied her at Streamline Studios in Ermita. For P250, she got 24 pieces of 2x2 photos and 12 full body shots which were to be used in her application. Back at the recruitment agency, she received word that she was "FIT TO WORK." Thinking that it would only be a matter of days before she departed for work in Hong Kong, she was stunned at the news that she still had to "wait" for the right employer to come. And waited, she did. October came, then November. By Christmas of 1998, she and her family wanted to back out and reimburse the down payment because already the loan they took was earning interest quickly. But the eloquent recruiter Letty dissuaded them, offering them sweet talk of dollars and opportunities in case the application followed through. After six months of waiting, she was again asked to get a medical certificate since her previous one had "expired." Like a trapped mouse, Aileen acceded. But having no money, her recruiter offered to shoulder the cost. Finally in May 1999, Aileen firmly decided to back out. She demanded her reimbursement from the agency. However, only P8,000 was returned to her because the recruiter claimed recompense for the second medical check-up plus "transportation" costs. Alone and confused, she couldn't wrestle the remaining P2,000 from the agency. Her father then told her to give up and that they should just shoulder the misfortune. Aileen was gravely frustrated with the sugar-coated promises of her recruiter and the agency. For a year she went back to Cagayan, her home province and tilled the fields. The lure of overseas employment had not dimmed. A friend working in Hong Kong recommended another agency to her. She paid P5 for registration and on May 18 she went for interview. The same questions were asked her as before. The only difference was that the interviewer looked at her hands and complemented them for her callus. "You're very hard working," the interviewer claimed. She paid P750 for a videograph and picture. She was No. 47 in the catalogue. Another medical exam, this time, cost P1,100. She was ready again. The agency's interviewer approached her after work and convinced her to go into their training center in Las Piñas while she was "waiting" for the processing of her papers. There she would learn how to cook Chinese food and speak Cantonese. "Don't worry about the fee," the agent said. "In fact, if you work there, you would even receive a salary from us." A Mrs. Federosas manages the training center. Everyday, around 15-20 women arrive there. They were divided into two groups and were assigned tasks in the kitchen, in the garden, in the laundry room, etc. Aileen took part in these "trainings" but when the other fifteen were through, she had to continue work because she was also a live-in maid in the center. She was given P1,000 and every Sunday as day-off where she went back home. At last, on June 1, she was told by the agency that she had an employer. She again took a medical exam (P1,100 for the second round). The agency asked her a placement fee of P5,000. When the contract arrived, she was told to pay P10,000. When a ticket and a fixed departure date was assured, she was told to pay an additional P12,000. With the emotional rush of knowing that she could finally work abroad, she willingly paid up. Her father again loaned from her relatives with 15% monthly interest. The recruitment agency also asked her to secure a loan from a credit corporation. The agency gave her a referral slip and so she went. Together with two "co-makers" of the agency's choice (a co-maker had to earn at least P6,000 monthly), Aileen loaned P55,000 payable in four months through salary deduction. On top of that, she had to pay P3,000 to the co-makers. She was about to leave on August 21 this year but then suddenly the employer "backed out". To console Aileen, the recruitment agency offered to "hire" her for technical work in the office while they search for a replacement employer for her. At P223.50 a day, she worked in the recruitment agency as a messenger and over-all runner. A phone call about a Filipina who worked only for one day before terminating her contract changed Aileen's life forever. The recruitment agency offered Aileen as the replacement for the Filipina. Little did Aileen know that this same employer would be her scourge. On November 14, she came to Hong Kong, at last. On the first day of work, the employer accosted her passport, supposedly for insurance purposes. It was only after two weeks, in the hospital where she was brought, that these documents were returned to her. Her contract only mentioned that she would work for a family in a 1,400 square feet house. In reality, she had to work for twice that area. She was not given food. Left-overs were all she had. According to the contract, she would be sleeping with the nine-year old child of the employer in a room. On her first night and subsequently, she had to do with the living room sofa and only when the whole family would have gone to sleep. She works from 6 am to 3 in the morning. Water was her stomach's only companion during the day. Her employer did not even allow her to cook instant noodles. Her employer would be very strict with monitoring her chores. Sometimes, she would even close all the lights and run a rag on surfaces to see if there were dust and dirt. Verbal abuse became regular. This miserable condition could explain why on November 27, Aileen collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. She was diagnosed as suffering from syncop. Her blood pressure plunged dramatically. Fatigue, lack of sleep and hunger contributed to this. She now realized why the Filipina she replaced terminated her contract after only one day of working with this particular employer. She was rescued by volunteers of the Bethune House Migrant Women's Refuge at the hospital. There she is now staying, waiting for the settlement of her case against her employer and agency. Her recruiters (both here and in the Philippines) waived all responsibility to her and had even mounted pressure for her to shut up and just return to their fold. Both have connived to make Aileen's lot more miserable than she could handle. Harassment, maltreatment and abuse were given her. But she stood her ground. She found support and solidarity with the other residents of the shelter. After thousands of pesos and months of patient "waiting", Aileen had a short taste of elation with finally working abroad. But now she is faced with huge debts, job insecurity and a sick father. She now has a longer time for struggle to reclaim her dignity. But that, my friends, is another story to tell.     Search our site: advance search             Back to top           1995 - 2001 (c) copyright The Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers (HK) Society e-mail: mission@migrants.net website: http://www.migrants.net