Filipino workers suffer as economic crisis deepens
Single mother Maritess Paloma had a simple dream in mind when she left home to work in Taiwan in June 2008 - to save enough money to buy a house in the northern Philippine province of Bulacan.
The dream crumbled when less than five months later, she was laid off from her job at a Taiwan semiconductor factory.
“Our supervisors told us that there were really no more orders coming in so they had to let us go,” she said. “My world almost collapsed then. I asked a friend in Taiwan to help me find new work, but she also lost her job.”
“There was nothing more I could do there so I went back home in November 2008,” she said.
Home for Paloma is now a cramped rented room she shares with her 12-year-old daughter in Plaridel town in Bulacan province, 45km north of Manila. The room is only big enough for one double bed, a table, a cabinet and a refrigerator.
After earning $600 a month in Taiwan, she now has to make do with just $100 a month, which she earns from selling ice, beer and soft drinks.
“Sometimes, when I have no more money, we turn to our neighbours for help,” Paloma said. “They give us food, sometimes we eat just rice, just to get by. That’s okay as long as we survive.”
Paloma regrets that her 69-year-old mother, who took care of her daughter while she worked in Taiwan, has been forced to move back to her brother’s thatched farm hut since she lost her job.
“We only have simple dreams,” she said. “We only want to live comfortably, to have our own house. That would have to wait for now.”
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