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ISLAMABAD,
Pakistan—The
Philippine ambassador is very proud of Filipino workers
here, and they include the housemaids.
While it
is easy to admire the professionals that in many foreign
companies abroad are usually in highly technical or
management positions, these domestic helpers should not
be looked down upon, according to Philippine Ambassador
to Pakistan Jimmy Yambao.
He said
many of them, such as those in Pakistan, work as
mayordoma or head of the household staff, showing their
management capabilities and above-average quality of
performance.
He told
six visiting journalists from
Manila news agencies that Filipino house help are in great demand
“because they are educated and take instructions
better.”
For
proof of this, he revealed that newly installed
Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani is
getting three Filipino maids, whose employment in the
Gillani household is being processed in Manila. The
soon-to-be prime minister’s maids have relatives in
Karachi,
the hometown of Gillani.
This is
not the first time that Filipinas have “invaded” the
residence of a top foreign government official. The
White House itself has a Filipina as a chef. Having
Filipino help in households of government officials and
the rich is not uncommon in
Pakistan,
said Yambao.
Proud of
the status of OFWs in
Pakistan,
Yambao said the chefs in two Japanese restaurants in
Karachi
are Filipino. He added that the manager of the Sheraton
Hotel is a Filipina married to a German.
Many of
the Filipino women in
Pakistan
are married to Pakistanis. These women, Yambao said,
usually become school principals because of their
educational background.
Many
teachers and other college graduates had opted to work
as domestic help abroad for lack of work opportunities
at home. Their educational background—and other Filipino
traits, such has being cheerful, patient and maintaining
a high level of personal hygiene—gives them an edge over
their foreign counterparts.
There
are around 3,000 Filipino workers in Pakistan, majority
being professionals—consultants with the United Nations
agencies, officers in nongovernment organizations or
engineers.
And
since OFWs could be found in practically every corner of
the world, it was not surprising for the visiting
journalists from Manila to bump into computer engineer
Aristotle Baricuatro and Gerry Alas at a hotel in
Karachi where they are temporarily billeted.
The two,
who appear to be in their early thirties, have been
working for some months at Ericsson Electronics in its
plant in Karachi and Hyderabad with a salary that ranges
from “at least $1,000 to a couple of thousand dollars
more.”
Besides
Baricuatro and Alas, the Filipino journalists also met
seamen Buddy Acub and Jessie Yongco, who flew in from
Manila
and were waiting to board their Norwegian-owned ship
coming from Germany.
The
Filipino journalists were invited by the Islamabad
Policy Research Institute to an observation tour of
Karachi,
Islamabad and Lahore to be able to provide the Filipino
readers a different perspective of Pakistan apart from
the terrorism stories that dominate the press everyday.
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