The Long Road Ahead
/
Before the TV crew saw them, the laborers had just been walking from 7 to 10 hours, and stopped only because of the curfew. (Photo by Jervis Manahan)
After an hour of aimlessly driving around dark streets, we saw a group of people sleeping outside a building on Muñoz (corner Congressional, just along EDSA). Thinking they were street dwellers, my cameraman and I approached them carefully and with some hesitation, as the presence of media with a large camera might scare them away now that everyone had been advised to stay home due to COVID 19.
Two of them calmly recounted how they got there.
The entire group of 18 people worked for a construction company in Sucat, Parañaque, which stopped operations because of the lockdown. Now jobless, the laborers decided to walk home to Tarlac, 151 kilometers away, with only a week’s worth of pay at hand. The quarantine was the least of their concerns. They were worried about how to feed their families from now on.
We asked why they opted to go home to Tarlac instead of staying in Paranaque, and I'm sharing, with their permission, some portions of their responses. Verbatim.
LEONARDO GIER, one of the laborers: "No work, no pay kami Sir. Yun ang alam namin. Aminado kami don, na kapag walang trabaho, walang sasahurin kaya minabuti namin na umuwi sa pamilya namin, kasi kahit saluyot lang ang kakainin, at least sama-sama kami, kesa doon sa Paranaque, papakainin kami ng amo namin pero yung pamilya namin, 'di namin alam kung nakakakain o hindi."
(No work, no pay is our situation, sir. We accept that if there’s no work we won’t get paid, so we decided to go home to our families. Even if we’re just going to have saluyot for meals, at least we’ll eat together as a family. If we stay in Parañaque our boss may feed us, but what about our family. We don’t know if they have anything to eat.)
JOEY LAGMAN, another laborer: "Sir kasi, hindi naman libre pagkain namin. Babayaran namin pagkain namin, kasi 'di kami nagtatrabaho. Di pa namin kasama pamilya namin. Ang layo ng iniisip namin. Gusto namin kasama namin pamilya namin."
(Sir, besides we have to pay for our meals here and yet our family is not with us. Our thoughts will be far away. We want to be with them.)
LEONARDO: "Sobrang apektado kami, ang hirap, yung pag lockdown, 'di namin inexpect na titigil trabaho namin. Nagdeclare na tigil operation, kaya nagpursige kami umuwi. Kesa mabaon kami sa utang sa kumpanya sa barracks namin. Syempre pinapakain kami ng boss, 'di pwedeng 'di namin bayaran yon."
(We’re really hit hard by the lockdown. We didn’t expect our jobs to stop, but the operations were stopped. So, we’ve decided to go home instead of being buried in debt in our barracks. Of course, if the boss feeds us we have to pay for that.”)
“The entire group of 18 people worked for a construction company in Sucat, Paranaque, which stopped operations because of the lockdown. Now jobless, the laborers decided to walk home to Tarlac, 151 kilometers away.”
Coming home almost empty-handed was already a tough choice to make. But they had a bigger challenge.
Public transportation has been suspended, so the laborers were left with no choice but to walk. They walked for more than seven hours until they got to the spot where we found them. Tarlac City was still approximately 129 kilometers away, it would take them two more days of walking.
LEONARDO: "Napakahirap na maglakad, yung 7-10 hours nilakad namin, hanggang namumulikat na paa namin. Bagsak na mga tao. Hintay lang kami umaga, natatakot kami baka ma-curfew kami. Kaya nagpahinga muna kami hanggang umaga para makauwi sa pamilya."
(It’s tough walking seven to ten hours until our feet got cramps. We’re dead tired. We’ll just wait until morning as we’re also worried about the curfew. So we’ll just rest until we can keep going to be with our families.”)
Two of the 18 laborers taking a respite from their hours of walking. (Photo by Jervis Manahan)
JOEY: "Nanawagan kami sa tulong sino man may puso, sana bigyan kami sasakyan, pahiramin, ihatid kami sa Tarlac. Masakit na paa namin naglalakad. Kung may mabubuting puso po diyan, tulungan sana kami."
(We appeal to those who have a heart, please lend us a vehicle or give us a ride to Tarlac. Our feet our killing us. To good people out there, please help us.)
They were hoping there's a kind-hearted person who would see them on TV, and would lend a vehicle so they don't have to walk all the way to Tarlac. They even offered to pay for gas!
Food and other goods arrived. (Photo by Jervis Manahan)
Fortunately, a lot of netizens who saw their plight immediately offered help. It was so overwhelming: some people asked how to send food and money, some offered to pay for their transportation, while some volunteered to lend their vehicles. Even the mayor of Tarlac City made immediate arrangements to bring them home.
The first responders were staff of the PNP Directorate for Police Community Relations. They called me and when I heard a woman on the line asking for the group's location, I initially worried that the police might arrest the laborers for being outside the house when strict home quarantine measures are being implemented.
But I was wrong! To my surprise, they immediately brought a lot of food, alcohol, and face masks. They even had a cake (which was so appropriate because one of the laborers was spending his birthday!). In just two hours, they were also able to provide a large truck to bring the guys home. Of course, they were disinfected first, and the vehicle was large enough so they could practice social distancing.
Inside the PNP truck that took them to Tarlac, their hometown. (Photo by Jervis Manahan)
The laborers were so grateful for the outpouring of support from people; mostly netizens, who pitched in to help. They said they were so relieved that they would finally see their families at this time of crisis.
Of course, there are still many issues left to be addressed here: social inequality; labor security; accountability of their employers to their workers; government response to a public health emergency, among many other things. But this moment showed that even the worst of times can bring the best in our humanity. For Mang Leonardo and Mang Joey, the most important thing last night was just to see their wives and children. And it took an entire community to give them just that. At 4 a.m. today, they texted that they were already home.
In behalf of Mang Leonardo, Mang Joey, and the rest of the group, maraming maraming salamat po sa mga nag-abot ng tulong (heartfelt thanks to those who gave them help).
I am reminded of the company's tenets (ABS-CBN) that you all see before our newscasts:
Tayo ang Lingkod.
Tayo ang Kapamilya.
May we all show compassion to each and every one even after this crisis is over!
This story was first published in: https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/03/21/20/the-inspiring-story-of-the-laborers-who-were-going-to-walk-home-from-paraaque-to-tarlac