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No Work, No Pay, No Assurance Today

Aug 22, 2020
2 min read

by Angelo Castañer

RETRENCHMENT. A man seeking new job opportunities and openings. Employees from different companies are being retrenched and laid off due to the financial crisis brought by the pandemic. © Solis

March 16 was the day that President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Luzon would be placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine. This same date was also the day that Mae Moralde received the shocking news that the spa where she works had been closed down.

Mae Moralde, age 37, lives in Pasig with her husband and three children. She had been a massage therapist for over four years. At least she had been one until the lockdown was abruptly announced. Unfortunately, she has now become one among the millions of Filipinos that had lost their job on that day.

“Nalungkot at nag-aalala ako kasi paano na ang kakainin namin?” Moralde says as she briefly describes what she felt that day. “Nag-iisip ako kung saan kukuha ng pambayad sa lupa ng bahay, at ng tubig at kuryente.”

The likes of Moralde, where the term “No Work, No Pay” is the basic principle for earning their wages, are now struggling to find a way to earn and provide for their families in this pandemic. “At may mga point minsan na gusto ko na lang umiyak kasi paano na ang mga anak ko?

Now, Moralde does her own appointments around the area she lives in and sells her homemade kakanin, which is made up of glutinous rice and coconut milk, to help her husband pay off their pending bills and to buy food to get their family through the day.

Mae Moralde is just one among those who, despite the health risks they may be exposed to, struggle to find means for them to earn and feed their family. That being said, these jobless people are someone’s mother or someone’s father that they rely on for their daily needs, and they are now clinging to unsteady work that may not promise their tomorrow. Let Moralde’s story be a reflection of the struggles that the majority of the Filipino people are going through right now. May it echo in the hearts of those privileged enough who still choose to turn a blind eye from the truth. Moralde’s story is true and real. It is not just a mere number in the unemployment statistics nor the unwanted presence of Filipino resiliency in a crisis.

For monetary donations/To reach out to Mae Moralde, you may contact her through her cell phone number, 09380557749, or through her Facebook messenger at Mae Marfil.