By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – Many Filipinos go abroad for a shot at a brighter future.
But the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has left many of our overseas Filipino workers (OFW) confused if they can even continue to pursue that dream for their families, or leave their aspirations hanging.
The story of 44-year-old Lory Jane Arana Quinquero of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental might as well be the tale of hundreds of thousands of OFWs affected by the pandemic.
Quinquero worked as a hotel chef in Doha, Qatar for seven years.
The single mother first flew to Dubai and worked there for three years before moving to Qatar to work for another seven years.
Quinquero sacrificed her being a mother to her two children to provide for their needs and let them finish their studies.
As the pandemic rapidly hit the world, the hotel she’s working for was severely affected by the global health crisis.
Rumors of retrenchment came out early April, until the hotel management made a very important announcement.
She felt it was not going to be an ordinary meeting with hotel executives.
As a breadwinner, she kept praying that her fear of losing her job will not happen. She then heard her name being called, just as some of her colleagues left the room with looks of disappointment on their faces.
She felt nervous as she was the last person to be called. Still, she prayed that she will be spared. But her nightmare began as she entered the room.
At a loss for words, tears began falling from her eyes as she was informed that she is one of the more than 100 employees who will be retrenched because of COVID-19.
She thought “I was not ready for it”, but reality slowly sank in her as she continued crying upon hearing that she was out of work effective April 30, 2020.
She was too stressed about so many things and the moment she heard the bad news, felt like her heart was crushed.
The thought of “how to survive” came in, considering that she doesn’t have enough savings.
She’s been struggling alone and she didn’t know how to tell her family about what happened. It took her three weeks to have the courage to inform them about her sad fate.
She finally told her mother and two children that she was terminated from work. But, despite her sadness, she didn’t let them see her cry during their online conversation.
She knew they were also sad and that they pity her for what happened but the thought of “Kung magpuli ko, maano ko to? kay wala ko obra” popped up.
She didn’t know how to cope with the situation when she returns here, especially if she’s going to stay here longer.
“Maayo tani kun may ma donate isa ka pasong nga bugas kag groceries kay wala na ko daan kwarta. Ano na lang kung mag stay pa ko sang dugay.”
She was supposed to build a house for her family and buy a lot, but that will not happen anymore (probably for now). She doesn’t know when she could fulfill that dream for them, as she is not earning for almost two months now.
She plans to start a small business when she returns home, but she is not sure if her separation pay will suffice for their needs here while she has no stable job.
Aside from that, she’s also facing another challenge because she‘s stranded in Qatar, waiting for the call from the Embassy for the scheduled flight for terminated OFWs.
For now, she survives on the food allowance from her company since her termination from work took effect.
She was having a hard time because she’s been using her savings to survive in Qatar for now.
Despite everything, she still hopes she can work abroad when the pandemic ends, although she’s not sure if she can still be qualified for any position because of the age requirement.