Crestita Bercasio, 44, a native of Barangay Lanas here, failed in her dream to give her family a better life after working abroad as a domestic helper three times. Her salary was only good for her family’s needs.
The first job she had was in Hong Kong from 1990 to 1992, the second in Dubai from 1994 to 1996, and the third and last in Jordan from 2001 to 2003.
After her stay in Dubai, she returned without any savings here although her family was in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat. Though penniless, her relatives helped her start a new life as a nanny with a P1,500 monthly salary.
She later informed her husband, Benito, that she was back in Pangasinan; she was reunited with her family after two years — in April 2005 — but three of her children were still left in Sultan Kudarat because the couple did not have money for their fare.
They built a one-room house on a 25-square meter lot. But life became more miserable as she slipped one day, causing pain in her hips. Her employer replaced her with another nanny while she recuperated.
With her jobless and her husband having no permanent job, the couple gathered left—over palay stalks from ricefields they do not own. It took them two weeks or more of sustained work just to come up with a sack of newly milled rice, which they, in turn, sold to the rice mill for about P400 to P500. Farm owners allowed them to do this out of pity.
The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will belatedly play Santa Claus to the Bercasios today as part of its "OWWAish Ko Lang" project of its traditional Pamaskong Handog sa OFWs (overseas Filipinos workers).
The Bercasio family was chosen as the project’s Region 1 beneficiary. They join 16 other families from all over the country.
The OWWA project was inspired by the reality that not all OFWs succeed and that some like Crestita end up destitute due to some circumstances.
OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque, together with regional director Ma. Luisa Reyes, will personally hand over to the Bercasio family P5,000 worth of grocery items, P10,000 cash, an Equitable ATM card with P10,000 deposit, a Globe Telecom auto-load prepaid SIM, a P50,000 insurance certificate from Sunlife, and a Tuloy Aral educational assistance for the couple’s youngest daughter May Pearl, a first-year high school student, in the amount of $100.
Also on hand to witness the grant is Mangaldan Mayor Herminio Romero, who earlier pledged to give the Bercasios a surprise package.