Resigned

Jerry Ranes

Soft-spoken Jerry Ranes was a tile-setter who arrived in September 2003.

For nine months, he endured deductions equivalent to one or two days worth of his salary.

The deductions decided by the employer himself were based on flimsy reasons, like tiles supposedly unclean or reporting for work one minute late.

On his last month, though, he had a nasty argument with a co-worker who hit him with a level bar, a tool used to level tiles on the floor.

The employer penalized him with deductions worth half his monthly salary.

"That was the last straw," Ranes said in Filipino.

"Ano pang matitira sa sahod ko?" (What will remain of my salary?)

Melvin Batayola

Ranes and Melvin Batayola, a painter (not a tile-setter as previously reported here) who did not receive his salary for more that six months, like most 'stranded' OFWs, were already resigned to their fate - of working as undocumented workers in Riyadh, without any regular source of income, accepting donations from friends and roaming the city for a place to stay.

Batayola was roaming Riyadh for more than 3 months and was already getting hopeless until he joined KAMI-SR.

He did not even report his case to the POLO because he normally doesn't have any money to cover the transportation cost to the Diplomatic Quarters.

"I do not even have enough to buy food," Batayola explains.

"Isa pa, ang dami-daming 'stranded' na Pilipino dito sa Riyadh, hindi naman inaasikaso ng gobyerno." (Besides, there's a lot of 'stranded' Filipinos here and they are being neglected by the government).

MIGRANTE Saudi Arabia
21 January 2004

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