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| Assessor Grace Sheila Manlangit, here posing with Labatt Jolly, returned to Camarines Sur on July 22 to take up her teaching position in Tigaon. |
On July 22, Grace Shiela P. Manlangit bid goodbye to her domestic work in Hong Kong and return to her native Bicol for a new job as high school teacher in Camarines Sur.
About five months from now, Laila Villanueva will also leave her employer’s house to try her luck and her certified skill in housekeeping in her hometown’s hotel and resort industry.
Manlangit will be taking the flight home with her mother Monina Padua, who will end on July 20 her occupation as OFW in Hong Kong for 20 years.
Manlangit, a 34-year-old mother of two who came to Hong Kong in November 2012 and worked for two local employers, is excited about the teaching job that awaits her back home.
“Teaching is my passion. I am grateful to be part of the program SPIMS (Sa Pinas Ikaw ang Ma’am, Sir),” she told The SUN on the sidelines of the awarding of Tesda certificates to assessors and skills trainees at the Bayanihan Center on June 19.
The 2015 Salary Standardization Law (SSL) has raised teachers’ salaries to Php20,745, or 12% up from P18,549 a month, but there are clamors to raise this further to Php25,000. As an added incentive, teaching kits are given by the labor and education departments to returning teachers. These consists of a tablet PC, lapel-worn microphones, 32GB SD cards, reference materials, and writing materials worth Php10,000.
Passing the licensure examination for teachers (LET) in 2013 fired up Manlangit’s eagerness to return home and teach. She said she had no teaching experience as she had flunked her first LET exam. So, she took on other jobs in Naga City, such as supervisor at a food company and as a call center agent, which became her job for six months before coming to Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, Manlangit enrolled in Tesda courses and on June 19 she received her accreditation certificate as assessor in the food and beverage competency. That augurs well for the returning worker, as the certificate opens other opportunities in addition to teaching.
However, she will not be posted in her hometown of Naga City but in Tigaon, a town roughly 41 km away.
“Wala po (kasing) shortage ng teacher sa Naga kaya doon ako ini-assign,” Manlangit said.
Her consolation is that she will be reunited soon with her sons Daniel Matthew, 12, and Emmanuel, 8.
For the lesson she has drawn from her OFW stint in Hong Kong which she would share with her students, Manlangit has this to say: “The sky’s not the limit, chase your dreams and keep climbing the ladder of success.”
Also looking forward to returning home armed with a new know-how is Laila Villanueva, who is five months short of being in Hong Kong for six years.
She passed the NCII assessment for housekeeping and earned a certificate that positions her well for the tourism industry in her hometown Puerto Galera, Mindoro Oriental.
The final trip home from Hong Kong will happen in December, when her current two-year contract ends, Villanueva said.
“Kaya ko kinuha ito, kasi kapag umuwi na ako sa amin sa Puerto Galera, marami pong hotel doon, puwede na po akong mag-apply,” she said.
She told The SUN her NCII certificate was one of the requirements of employers in Puerto Galera’s tourism industry.
Like Manlangit and Villanueva, thousands more OFWs are expected to return home for good when the economy improves, so a Tesda certificate will come in handy when they start looking for jobs.
