Once a govt rebel, now a helper of the helpless (2)

An interview with Linn, our Goducate worker among the depressed communities in East Malaysia.

Linn is a Filipina who now lives in Malaysia, with her husband and her three children. Her husband is working with poor migrants in Kuala Lumpur.

My dad would tell us stories of how he sent himself to school and his brother. How he would apply for the most mundane job of road construction and the big boss would make them wait the whole day before talking to them. How he got scolded by their landlord because he wants to go to school and not work the sugarcane farm. He felt like the rich people wanted him to stay were he was, ignorant and powerless to change his circumstances. He read a lot.

And he tells us also of the nice rich bosses who treated them well and who gave us things / gifts when we were growing up. And the poor friends who are nice and helping us in any way they could. Told us not to forget to repay by doing the same to others. to treat people as human beings.

It was always “serve the people.” taught us to think and to speak up, not to simply agree. At home we could always say what’s on our mind even when the norm says it’s disrespect when you do so, but my parents thought otherwise. they made us read – newspapers, reader’s digests, time magazines, books which considering their salaries were a luxury.

Some time after the release of my dad, he filed a case against the sugar mill because the laborer’s benefits were witheld from them.

I remember my mom asking for his paycheck each month which he could not produce since he has to pay lawyers. After 10 years, he won the case in the supreme court, the sugar mill was forced to release benefits not only for my dad but to the rest of the laborers. By this time we had transferred already to the city, my dad started his own electrical/repair shop. When we visited the district, my dad was hoisted up in the shoulders of old laborers,everyone were happy – I was puzzled. I learned the stories later from my dad’s friends and much later from my dad.

The political events in our country and where i was during those times contributed much to what happened to me.

I was graduating from high school when Ninoy Aquino was assasinated, afterwhich I entered U P. (University of Philippines) and it was the season of strikes and protests. It seemed so natural for me. I wanted to do something meaningful so I gravitated towards the student council, my friends were much older than me. I was a misfit – not beautiful and fair like the rest of my high school friends who did not make it to the same school-my interests were different, not clothes etc.

to be continued

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A helper of the helpless Part 1