THE ‘OTHER’ FRONTLINERS
TiTion was up and about early mornings of this week at a gated village in Quezon City. Keeping her busy was a work-for-cash project — an undertaking of the board of the homeowners and residents’ association of the subdivision that employed construction workers displaced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tition, a board member and the author’s neighbor of about five years, is the project implementor. She gathers four workers at a time mainly to rid the small and quiet village of mountains of uncollected and unsightly garbage that had accumulated in the last few years.
resurreccion “Tition” Lao, 59, works at a government agency that suspended activities owing to the virus emergency. The forced vacation, evidently, gave her as well as the other board members who had been similarly locked up at home, more time to be “frontliners” during the Covid-19 crisis.
as the “other” frontliners, they enforced health protocols, like wearing of face masks and curfew hours (8 p.m. to 6 a. m.). These on top of organizing the weekly “Market on Wheels” that sells reasonably-priced pork, fish, vegetables and other supplies brought in by outside vendors and meat companies.
The construction workers had found themselves unexpectedly jobless at various condominium projects along Katipunan road when Covid-19 blew into the Philippines.
Under the project, they each get paid P300 for a half- day’s work from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The amount would look like a fortune, considering that the workers had been hired by their respective building contractors under a no-work, no pay scheme.
Food is provided for free by concerned village homeowners, who apparently had noted the predicament of the mostly young guys laboring for a little cash and some of whom hail from agusan del Norte in Mindanao and Leyte in the Visayas, as they shared in this interview.
also on Wednesday of that week, Tition announced that the project would be temporarily suspended to pave the way for a little fundraising for the undertaking.
as she and the const ruction workers called it a day, she waved, holding empty sacks and a dustpan, saying, “Sa susunod na lang uli ( Until next time).”
a project implementor’s job is never done, it would seem, and the temps whom the village board had hired could perhaps consider themselves in the same boat filled with workers like them and whom Sen. Grace Poe has described as “struggl[ing] to get to work due to the absence of mass transportation.”
at least, the boys from Katipunan road only had to walk a bit — about half a kilometer — to get to their work site.
recognizing the “commitment and perseverance” of the workers to earn income for their families and help lift industries beset by the pandemic, Poe, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Services, said this daily problem of being forced to walk to get to their companies on time “must not be a part of the new normal.”
“especially woeful [ is] the situation of no-work, no- pay employees, who will not earn anything for the day if they fail to show up, or will be meted with deductions if they come in late,” she added, according to a report.
Under the lockdown, though, Jen Garcia still earns money for herself and her family, being employed as supervisor of a 24/ 7 convenience store also along Katipunan road.
Garcia, however, said, “It would take a little longer for us to reach sales levels, pre-Covid-19, because under the crisis, we have had few customers.”
The convenience store catered to students from many high schools, col leges and universities in the area, according to Garcia, who considers herself as a frontliner in the fight against the coronavirus.
“We are a serviceoriented establishment,” she explained. Like her, avelino Char ita, 36, said he, too, is a frontliner. He also e xplained, “Kami ang unang kumakausap sa mga delivery, sa mga nagtatanong na residente kung dumating na yung take- out orders nila. Kami rin ang nagreremind sa mga tao na magsuot ng face masks at ibang protocols. Kaya para rin kaming ( We are the first to talk to delivery men, to residents who ask if their food has arrived. We are also the ones reminding people to wear face masks and observe other health protocols. So, we are like) hospital people.”
His supervisor, alfredo Tinaan, 50, agreed.
Tinaan, from Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Nor te, mentioned, however, that the ayuda ( cash assistance) he and Charita were expecting from the Social Security System has “not arrived.”
Both of them had not been home for more than two months since the enhanced Community Quarantine was implemented.
But Charita apparently wished to see his family and siblings in his native Catarman, Samar right away, especially now that they are still reeling from Typhoon ambo.
“all my money is for them,” he said of where his salary would be going.
and, apparently, all his attention (undivided for sure) goes to whoever delivers goods and orders food, being the frontliner that he is sans medical uniform and stethoscope.