Leyte OFW, happy to be home though unable to bring anything

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
August 2, 2006

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  She was unable to bring home anything but Marilyn Magsino Modesto of Barangay Sta. Elena, Tanauan, Leyte, said, she is happy to be back home alive.

Marilyn, a twenty-five year old education graduate became a domestic helper in Lebanon in August of 2005, because she wants to help her parents in raising their big family of ten children where she is the eldest.

The petite 4 feet something lass presented herself yesterday to Tanauan Mayor Roque Tiu, relating her story. She said that when the war started, she and her two co-workers intimated to their employer that they wanted to go home. The employer agreed but could not bring them to the Embassy because of the bombings.

What the employer did was to study the time of bombings and in between, Marlyn and the two other Filipinas were taken to the agency from where they were taken.  At the agency, they were not allowed to go home and so they contacted the Philippine Embassy.

When the agent learned this, they were hidden in a hotel and Marlyn was not allowed to bring anything, not even her personal belongings nor her money nor her passport, only a pair of pajama and the clothes she was wearing.

She said she, together with the two Filipino domestic helpers, were rescued by an officer of the Philippine Embassy from a hotel where they were hidden by their agency. At the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, she was given her travel papers.

Marilyn was among the first batch of Overseas Filipino Workers who were repatriated to the Philippines because of the crisis in Lebanon. She said she was so excited to see the President when they arrived.

She was given by the OWWA enough money to be able to come home to Tanauan taking the bus transport. She arrived home on July 31. She said she cried when she arrived home seeing the condition of their house and her family. She is sorry she is unable to bring home anything but she is so relieved that God has allowed her to come home safely to her family.

Marilyn could still vividly remember the bombings at Beirut and until now she shivers at the thought. But right now, she is thinking what she can do to help her siblings be able to go to school and to help lighten the load of her parents.