Life Stories

            Six subjects of varying backgrounds and experiences  were selected for in-depth interviews, one from each field site. They are

1)  Remedios Solitario, a widow  with many children, who provides the story of an unorganized, aging  woman  in rural Iloilo   trying to make ends meet by vending  vegetables and processed food after her husband’s death;

2) Corazon Casim, an Ifugao migrant weaver living in Baguio City, also a widow with six children and active in PATAMABA; 

3) Ramil Patacsil, brother-in-law of a PATAMABA leader in Naguilian, La Union, whose story exemplifies the advantages of membership in the ORT Health Plus micro-insurance scheme  (OHPS)  over and above Philhealth ;

4) Angelita Carbillon, a Damayan member from San Francisco, Bulacan, Bulacan, a displaced factory garments worker who turned to milkfish processing and other forms of informal work to support her daughters and three grandchildren (one grandchild died at birth after ceasarian delivery);

5) Divina Cesar, a homeworker leader from Balingasa, Quezon City active in the SSS-ADA program, whose fortunes took a turn for the worst when her husband got sick with diabetes, and her own income from lace-making and other informal production fell due to competition and other factors; and

6) Lucia Almazan, a migrant who has been working since childhood as  a domestic helper, eatery employee, homebased worker and vendor, suddenly widowed with four children, but determined to have her own house through the PATAMABA HOA and to enjoy social protection through the SSS-ADA.

Excerpts from the Narratives  

         The death of Remedios Solitario’s  husband  was an eye opener on the necessity and importance of social protection. Through an indigenous form of social protection traditionally known as Damayan, the people in her  community  were able to assist Remedios by shouldering part of her husband’s burial expenses. This form of community assistance is popularly practiced in the rural areas where people give voluntary contributions, in cash or in kind, in order to help the bereaved family in the burial expenses as well as attending to visitors during the wake Nevertheless, it is terribly difficult to lose the family’s  breadwinner and even  more painful if the wife still has to worry about financial matters requiring immediate attention,  like sourcing needed amounts to cover all of the burial expenses. Remedios and her family are not beneficiaries of any social protection scheme.  Nor  is  any member  enrolled in a program such as the SSS, Philhealth and Red Cross.  Much as Remedios would have wanted to become a beneficiary in any of the programs, she does not yet have the  capability to pay  the required monthly contributions

After her husband passed away, Remedios could not help but worry about the future, especially the financial condition of her family.  Her earnings  as a  vegetable and processed food vendor  are  simply not enough for their needs.  Now that the main breadwinner is gone,  she has to strive harder and work double time so that she can earn enough to defray the family’s daily expenses. As she ages,  she still continues to work because she has  to provide for her children.  There are times when work is really hard to come by.  If she has no earnings,  then she resorts to borrowing  money  from relatives. Sometimes she also worries about where to get  the capital needed for her small business. She  pins her hopes on PATAMABA, which she just recently joined.

Corazon Guimbungan-Casim, 37 years old,   is a widow with  six  children. She has been a member of PATAMABA since 1993. Cora is a homebased weaver who  is now a solo parent raising five children. Shee lives in a “bang house”, a relocation site built for displaced workers of a lime factory when Texas Instruments and  the Export Processing Zone were established during the early ‘70s. Cora migrated from Ifugao when she was a child.  She reached first year high school but had to stop after experiencing ethnic discrimination.  At age  15, she met Rogelio, who was then 18. The two got married as soon as their parents agreed to their relationship.

Rogelio and Cora had six children, five boys and one girl. Unfortunately, Rogelio fell sick with cancer, which  could have been detected earlier, if only he sought medical help . But since the couple were both trying to make ends meet, medical attention was set aside. Rogelio’s hospitalization was so sudden --  the couple had no savings to cover it. It was also heartbreaking for Cora to learn that her husband had  no social security coverage. When they tried to process the claims for Medicare benefits, they found out that the construction company where Rogelio worked for a long time did not remit the required SSS contributions for its employees.

Cora was  a beneficiary of the Swisscontact project of PATAMABA, wherein she served as the long- time storekeeper.  She was paid P1,500  a month in addition to what she earned from weaving. This was the second job she had ever taken. She was glad to take it not because of the salary she received but because of the trust her co-members had shown her. In this job, she says she learned to understand business. She laughed when recalling how she came  to realize  that she could  also do such things as read, write, and figure out  the financial books. She seemed surprised that she could do things other than just home chores and weaving. She was sad when the project stopped, because she also had to stop working as storekeeper.

Cora joined the savings program recently set up by the organization.  She plans to use her savings for capital when she is ready to start her own business.

Ramil Patacsil   of   Bariquir, Naguilian, La Union is not a member of the SSS and Philhealth because he is not formally employed. His income is irregular.

Ramil  finished high school, learned drafting in college, and studied electronics in a vocational school.  Through ORT, he was trained in furniture making. Later, he also learned how to do cross-stitching.  Today, he runs a sari-sari (variety) store in their house and accepts repair of electronic equipment.  He is also a house-husband, taking care of the domestic chores and of the children when his wife is off to work. Occasionally, he also accepts cross-stitching jobs.

Ramil married Angeline Marinas, a high school graduate who found employment as a saleslady in Malayan Enterprise, which sells school supplies.  Angeline is a regular worker who receives P100 a day  and  has access to SSS and Philhealth benefits.  Because Ramil is a member of OHPS, their family’s health needs have been adequately served by both schemes.  When   Angeline  became pregnant, she received prenatal care and ultrasound services from OHPS.  When their two children acquired primary complex, their medication was covered by OHPS. When Ramil got sick with hepatitis and gall bladder infection, his treatment was also provided by OHPS. And when Ramil’s father who  was staying with them had to be treated for hypertension and underwent hospitalization, his bills as well as his maintenance medicines were paid for by OHPS. These would not have been covered by Philhealth, since the latter  provides only  for in-patient care  and only for members, their spouses and children,  but not the parents of spouses.

 “Truly the OHPS program is a great privilege for people like me, who cannot join SSS and Philhealth. My barangay is truly blessed to be chosen as recipient of the ORT Health Plus Scheme”, Ramil  says now.  He  cites his experience to the neighborhood to promote the OHPS.

Angelita Carbillon, or Lita, is  52 years old.  She is a homeworker who irregularly makes daing na bangus (marinated milkfish) and sells them.  She is married to Joe, who is 54 years old and is a construction worker.  In 1989, when she was 38, she and her family moved to San Francisco, Bulacan.   She again entered the formal sector working in garments factories where she sewed children’s clothes and doll’s clothes until these factories shut down.   Lita says that working in factories was better in that she was paid regularly and on time and she was able to avail of benefits from the Social Security System (SSS) such as salary loans and calamity assistance.  (She has stopped making contributions to the SSS). At this point, and using the benefits of membership in PATAMABA, such as training and participating in group enterprise projects, she entered the informal sector as a homeworker, sewing bags, and making marinated milkfish.

 She describes her current economic situation as very dire and her future and the future of her family as uncertain.  Her husband likewise carries this burden.  She, her husband, and her eldest daughter pool their resources to support a family of five adults and three children. Their economic circumstances took a turn for the worst when their eldest daughter’s first pregnancy necessitated a caesarian operation (the baby died).  They spent P50,000 for the procedure and had to resort to selling household appliances

Yet they manage somehow (“Kahit paano, nakakaraos.”).  During lean times, when she and her husband have no income, they rely on whatever stocks of small fish and rice  they have, and resort to borrowing from others.  When money comes in, they use it to buy rice and pay the electric bill. Her hardships, however, are taking a toll on her health.  She says the psychological burden is getting to her and she has fallen ill because of this.  She also suffers from chronic back and abdominal pain yet  she forces herself  to work.  She worries constantly about her health because her children and grandchildren are dependent on her.   She cannot afford to stop working.

She is a Purok Leader for DAMAYAN-PATAMABA, a social protection initiative in the barangay.  She is in charge of collecting from the members of her purok in cases of death and illness of a member, and death of a “katangkilik” (registered family member).  She herself has benefited once from the program, during the death of her grandchild.  She received less than P1000, because there were only around 100 members  who paid at that time, but she is grateful for the assistance and believes that the DAMAYAN program offers valuable help.

Lita wants to be able to expand her marinated milkfish business by finding more markets for this.  She also wants to be able to buy a second hand high speed sewing machine so she can take on sewing jobs again.  She says her vision has deteriorated from sewing at an early age but with her glasses, on she says she can do still do it.  However, she says she cannot sew at home because her four year old grandson will constantly disturb her.

Husband and wife continue to dream for a better life, through their own hard work.  They want to experience comfort and have peace (“Makatikim ng ginhawa at magkaroon ng katahimikan.”).  They want to be able to save for their old age.  She wants to stop thinking and worrying about where she will find the resources to put food on the table. 

  Divina Cesar, or Divine, is a homeworker from Balingasa, Quezon City.  She has a partner, Eddie, who is 49 years old, currently unemployed, and three children: Evalour, 24, who is married to a security guard, with one child and another on the way, and who lives in Sta. Maria, Bulacan; Debbie, who is 17,  and an incoming sophomore at PUP, with a one year old child; and Brian, who is 14, and an incoming junior at Sergio Osmena High School. 

She married early and after she separated from her husband, she had to take a job at a beerhouse, which she found shameful and demeaning. The beerhouse was a carinderia in the daytime, and this is where she ended up working as a server and dishwasher for two months.  She wanted to work so that she could bring her daughter gifts every time she visited her.  Divine met Eddie, her current partner, in the carinderia, and he would visit her here. She and Eddie moved in together to a house they had built in Balingasa (from which they were evicted due to a land dispute in 1996 and resulted in their leasing a house for P2,500 a month, in the Lambak area, also in Balingasa).  Divine had her second daughter, her first by Eddie, and Eddie asked her to stop working.  He was making enough to support the family by working in a machine shop that made moldings for plastic products. 

       In 1996, at the age of 35, she joined the newly-organized PATAMABA-Balingasa, attended livelihood training, and learned how to make lace.  She said that lace-making was profitable and earned her P4,000 a month by working six hours a day.These were prosperous times for Divine -- her husband solely supported the family, and all of Divine’s income was hers.  She was even able to give money to her mother and siblings.

       In 2002, due to the influx of cheap plastic products from China and Taiwan (because of globalization, avers Divine), Eddie lost his regular job.  In the same year, Divine stopped making lace because the selling price went down due to the already large supply and the buyers now always paid on credit, if at all. The same year, Eddie, who now had diabetes and had to take regular medication for this, resorted to taking contractual machine jobs that lasted from one to two months at a time. Eddie’s regular job became a sideline.  Divine, attended livelihood training on the making of rags, doormats, give-aways, candles, pillow cases.  These livelihood activities proved not as profitable and dependable as lace-making was.  The demand for some of the products, like candles, was seasonal; the sales of rags went up only during the rainy season; the making of give-aways (though also profitable) was irregular, and dependent on orders for special occasions.  On average, in the beginning, she made P500 a week, which was half of what she made when she was into lace-making. 

       In the past two years, from 2002 until the present time, all their savings were dissipated.  With Eddie working very irregularly, and the inconsistency in orders for the products Divine now makes, their financial situation has become difficult.  They are coping by resorting to other income-generating activities.  In 2002, Divine and Eddie started to send P2,000 once a year to Mindoro to be used for expenses in the cultivation of rice on a plot of land Eddie inherited.  The harvest for the entire year (one planting and harvesting cycle) is ten cavans, which sells for P1,000 each and earns them an P8,000 profit.  They used to sell the “bigas” (unmilled rice) but now utilize some of the harvest for personal consumption so they only have to worry about providing their daily viands.  Eddie also makes P100 per night running the “sakla” game with a partner in the wakes of deceased neighbors (per deceased person, this can reach a total of P700 with the wakes lasting an entire week).  Divine has a good friend who pays her P200 for rinsing her laundry, and the same friend buys her viands for her family when Divine accompanies her on errands.  As Treasurer of the PTA in the school where her son studies, she earns P500 for collecting PTA fees from the parents.  When the election season  set in, she earned from P100 to P200 for attending the “orientations/seminars” of various candidates.   Eddie has a sister who also helps them occasionally, and whom they approach when they have no one else to turn to.

       Divine avers that it was only in February  of 2004 when she reached the situation of being “hirap na hirap” (very hard up), of hitting rock bottom financially.  She had not experienced this in her entire life.  She felt no deprivation in her youth; both her husband and her current partner had always been making enough (the latter until 2002) so  that she could afford not to work.  She narrated how just recently , she was riding the bus in tears because her husband , who was in bed sick with pneumonia, needed to take medication that cost P200 per day, and she had gone to City Hall to ask for solicitations from the Councilors, as well as to the Heart Center and Lung Center for assistance, but emerged from all her efforts empty-handed.   She realized, “Talagang mamamatay ang tao kung walang pambili” (A person will really die for lack of money).

        It was in 1996 when it occurred to her that she needed social protection.  She and Eddie are not married, and she believes she will get nothing from him when he dies.  Three years ago, she learned about the SSS Self-Employed Program while watching television, and enrolled in the program.  She had been religiously making her monthly contributions until January of  2004. She could not make her contribution due to  lack of funds. 

       Divine is now part of the Automatic Debit Arrangement (ADA) Program of the DOLE, SSS, and PS Bank which was piloted in PATAMABA-Balingasa.  She is part of the leadership that runs the program.  On the fourth of every month, she collects the contributions of the enrolled members and together with her own contribution, deposits these in PS Bank.  She strongly believes in the merits of the ADA.  She says the other program participants were very happy to learn that there was a program for the self-employed.  The program helps a lot of people, providing SSS benefits to those who were previously ineligible, and by providing them savings accounts, encourages them to save. 

       When pressed further for her personal aspirations, she said that she wants to own a house in Balingasa.  It has to be in Balingasa because she feels most comfortable there.  In times of financial need, she has people she can approach; the people there are family to her. Her latest worry is the strong possibility of having to transfer to Bagong Silang Cavite, where she and Eddie were able to acquire a house and lot during good times, after her  two-year failure to pay the rent for their dwelling place in Balingasa.

       As for the organization (PATAMABA-Balingasa), she wants peace and harmony among the members.  She firmly believes that the organization can truly help people.  She takes this from her personal experience.  She has benefited a lot since joining: she learned alternative livelihood activities, was conscientized on women’s rights, was able to visit various government agencies, has been to different places, and  has gained confidence in dealing with different types of people.  She wants to see more people appreciate the value of being part of PATAMABA and their membership to increase.  

Lucia Almazan or Lucy is 50 years of age,  a widow who hails from San Antonio, Pila, Laguna. She has four children: Dexter, the eldest,  is seventeen years old and  a high school graduate;  Rosalinda, now 15 years old, recently graduated from high school; Maria Fe is 13 years old and just finished Grade VI; and Ana Marie, 12 years old, will soon be in Grade 6.

When she was 10 years old and a fourth grader, she landed a job as a dishwasher in Quezon City where she earned P25.00 per month and completed nine months for the work. This was after she had run away from home after being disappointed by her father who had ordered her to stop schooling. During her nine months on the job, she suffered physical abuse and  cursing  from her employer even in front of the customers. That experience was followed by another job as a nanny, which she had for two years until her employer migrated to the US. Afterwards, she considered herself lucky for finding another job under a very kind employer in the person of Olivia Trinidad. She worked for the Trinidad family as an all-around maid who also looked after the employer’s five children. Eventually, she was entrusted to be the caretaker of her employer’s interior and furniture business in Cainta Rizal.

      In February 1985, she married Domingo, a furniture delivery driver, who was nine years her junior and her co-worker. Their union signaled the start of a new life raising a family  on  their own.  Having left the Trinidad household, they lived in a rented apartment in Angono,  Rizal. This time Lucy sold vegetables in the market from  4 a.m.  to 8 p.m.,   from which she used to earn a net profit of P600 per day (from a P300/day investment) In 1987, after two years of marriage, Lucy’s husband resigned from his work as a driver and devoted  his time to his family, doing  the housekeeping. While Lucy was at work, her husband looked after the children, attending to their daily needs and  assisting them in their school assignments. Lucy, on the other hand,  had other alternative sources of income after she got home from the market: such as embroidery work with sequins, from which she used to earn P80 per week,  and a part time subcontracting job from a metal craft house décor  factory in Angono (MELCAS) from which  she used to earn as much as P130 to P200 per week. She had these  two part-time jobs from  1995 to 1997.

    After 12 years of being a house-husband, Domingo was persuaded by a good friend to accept a job as  family driver in Bataan with a monthly salary of P6,000 - of which P800  was  brought  home to his family on a weekly basis. Domingo’s job came at an opportune time because of the passing of the municipal ordinance apprehending sidewalk vendors for violation of the anti-squatting law. This prevented Lucy from continuing with her vending activity.

    On May 6, 1999 Lucy received the shocking message that Domingo had died and that he had already been dead for three days. As to the circumstances surrounding his death, Lucy was at a loss . No one seemed to know or cared to explain how it happened. It took some time before Lucy could bury her husband because of the amount needed to redeem the body from the funeral parlor.  Her husband’s employer promised to extend assistance and offered to support her eldest son’s education. However, until now, the promise remains just that. Lucy sought assistance from her in-laws because of her desire to seek justice for her husband’s death.  Unfortunately, they were not enthusiastic at all. Her conviction and determination were overcome by lack of  resources, leading to feelings of helplessness and guilt for not having  been able to do anything about her husband’s death

In one of the FGDs of subcontracted women workers held in San Vicente Barangay Hall in January 2001,  Lucy stood out because she started crying soon after introducing herself. When she was asked why, she confessed that her son, Dexter, had typhoid fever, and she had no money to buy medicine. After the FGD, she accompanied the research team to her family’s one-room shack , and apologized that there was not even a chair to sit on.

She joined PATAMABA San Vicente in 1992 and since then, she got involved  in local chapter activities such as organizing, capability-building , advocacy work, campaigns and socio-economic activities initiated by the organization. With her involvement in PATAMABA, she learned/gained a lot not only  from economic empowerment activities  but also regarding how to protect her family.  To  quote her,  “PATAMABA is my shining armour in times of distress and a shoulder to lean on”.

Lucy participated in the savings mobilization program through which each member voluntarily saved at least a minimum of P20 per week. For three years, she was able to save, and these savings,  she collected every January 15 in time for the holiday season. For two years now, she used these savings  as payment for her monthly amortization for the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) of the PATAMABA HOA of which she is also a member. The CMP project was meant  to address the members’ call for asset reform, to which the local government responded  after four long years of advocacy by PATAMABA.  As part of PATAMABA HOA, she was able to pay the organization P1000 for the land survey and P500 for the land improvements. She had to save another P5,000 as a required trust fund . A monthly amortization of P237  will have  to be paid for 25 years for the lot allocated to her. This program will address the long awaited dream of  Lucy to have  a  place  that she can  permanently call her  own. 

To address the issue of social protection, Lucy enrolled  in  the Social Security System (SSS) ADA program of DOLE-SSS-PSB scheme,  contributing P94 per month. She made an initial deposit of  P500  in  October 2003 and contributed  P100.00 every month thereafter.