What are the objectives of your organization?
The Workers Assistance Center (WAC) is a non-government, non-profit institution, with the main office based in Rosario, Cavite, which was organized to address the needs of the workers in the provinces of Cavite and, since 2002, Batangas. The primary objective of the institution is to empower the workers to fight on their own collective strength for their democratic, political and labor rights and welfare. Its core program is the organization of workers into unions and other forms of associations. WAC also draws together other organizations and individuals to promote and support the workers struggle for their basic rights and welfare. To achieve its primary goal, WAC regularly conducts studies and researches on the industry and workers’ conditions, publishes and passes on information about labor situation and labor rights, carries out education and training seminars, assists in workers campaigns through international solidarity, and provides legal assistance.
How is your organization financially supported?
Since WAC is a non-profit organization, we rely mainly on funding from foreign and local agencies. However, part of our finances also comes from individual donations. Volunteer work from the workers and friends are significant non-monetary “donations” that help our finances.
What is you role in your organization?
As the Research, Documentation, Information and Publications (RDIP) Program Coordinator, I am part of the management committee that plans and supervises the implementation of the institutional programs that the Board of Trustees had approved.
What is your current job? ? Please describe the work you are doing?
I supervise the program implementation and staff of the RDIP Program. I function as the editor-in-chief so most of the research reports, publications and releases go through me before going through the rest of the editorial board and before printing. Whenever necessary, I am tasked to give training and education seminars to other staff and workers.
Can you describe a typical day at work (office or in the field)?
My work is largely office-based, most of the time in front of the computer. How else do I describe my day in the office? I write (type in the computer, really) and read and go over what the other staff have written... or see to it that the staff members are able to fulfill their respective functions.
How long have you been in your current job?
I have been with WAC since January 2000 as staff of the RDIP Program. I wrote for the newsletter then. I became the Program Coordinator a year later. I headed the researches on the Condition of the Workers in the Electronics Industry and on The Women Workers in the Cavite Economic Zone in 2002 and 2003.
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Above: Laura's daughters Deng and Sylvia.
Below: Laura with husband Aris and daughter Roma.
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How did you find your current job?
I was invited by its Executive Director and friend, Rev. Fr. Jose Dizon.
What do you find satisfying in your job?
I am able to do what I want, that is, to help in the service of the marginalized sectors (this particular time, the workers) and receive compensation for it.
Did you find the degree (or academic background) you obtained from UPLB helpful?
I think that the academic knowledge I have learned through the years until college contributed in fulfilling my tasks although my background in Chemistry was particularly helpful when we were doing the coconut industry research in 1981-82. Actually, I have understood the different concepts discussed in school only when I studied it again whenever I needed them for a particular job I was working on.
Is being a member of the UP Varrons useful? In what way?
I was a Varron when I learned about collectivism, about service to the people, about being part of the struggle of the marginalized people who were fighting for their rights to survive and for decent lives, about having to fight for what I want and what I believe to be right. They don’t teach that in the classrooms, do they?
Are you involved in other activities aside from work and family?
Much of my time is taken up by work. For a few years back, I had time to get involved in community work in our barangay and neighborhood but had to give it up (four years ago, I think) coz I can’t keep up with the schedules of activities and meetings. These days, I spend time with the family whenever I am not working.
What do you consider as the turning point in your life?
I believe it is when I chose not to go back to the university and get involved in non-government organizations and live and work with the farmers. I have seen and lived the hardships and deprivation, political repression and economic oppression, and powerlessness of the peasantry and the workers so that when I write about them, I know I am writing about their lives and their hopes, about their poverty in spite of long hours of hard work. What I have gone through and learned made me a better citizen of the community, family (wo)man, wife and mother (I believe the best that I can be).
If you had a chance to change one thing in your life, what would it be?
Nothing really. I am at ease with what my children have become or are becoming. I am relatively comfortable with my own life. I have always wanted to go back to school, though. I just never got the right opportunity...
Can you describe one thing that you are passionate about? What is your form of recreation? Your bedside reading?
I can’t really identify “one thing” I am passionate about coz I love doing a number of things. I have always liked to write. As a teen-ager, I enjoyed writing those compositions in high school English class, letters of affection (haha) and entries in my diary. After I have been involved in non-government organizations (NGOs) after I left the university, I turned to writing about the socio-economic issues mostly as research analysis, critique, feature article or news feature for the institution I’ve worked for. I still do this although a larger part of my job now is editing what others have written. I enjoy attending to my plants and lately (as in this year) I do really make time for it. I have been collecting orchids and flowering plants since the 1990s but hardly had time to look after them. I’ve lost most of them so I am starting over...
But I love most being with my children to tell stories about our days, watch movies together, and just have fun together... It would be more fun, though, if Aris could be with us as it has always been before his detention... Just in case some people still don’t know, Aris is now detained on false/made-up charges of rebellion at Camp Vicente Lim in Canlubang, Laguna. He was abducted, along with two other peasant organizers, the car driver and his companion, by elements of the Philippine National Police and Naval Intelligence Security Force in Tagaytay City on April 28, 2007. All of them were divested of all belongings and money, tortured, and kept in incommunicado detention until May 5, 2005. On that fateful dusk, Aris was on his way home for my birthday (April 30) and shared a rented car with two colleagues to take them, at least halfway, to their destinations. Aris has always been involved in political activism even as a student at UPLB. Since 1980, he has worked in peasant-based NGOs or as freelance researcher and consultant for farmers’ organization in the CALABARZON Region except in late 1980s to the 1990s when he served as the Secretary General of the Solidarity for People’s Power, which was a “multi-sectoral” organization.
For recreation... Shopping and home making??? Ha ha... I read paperback novels, whatever I find interesting at the moment... I do all other readings as requisite and part of my job...
What advice can you give for those Varrons who are thinking of going into the same career area?
Go for it. Just as long as they have at heart the interest of the powerless and less fortunate, they should be able to endure the difficulties and find fulfillment in the changes and growth they effect on the lives of those they serve . . .
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| Laura is sitting in front in this photo taken during the 21st birthday celebration of Bienvenido "Jun" Perez (Monosomic '76). From left: Marites "Tess" Dejelo-Bernardo (Monosomic '76), Asuncion "Azun" Miniano-Lopez (Octopus '73), Jun, Flora "Pola" Credo-de Guzman (Interaksyon '75), Mujane Begonia "Bing" Calizo (Batch '79), Belleza "Belle"Vilela-Chua (Crystal '77), Aris, Lucia "Luchie" Atienza-Campomanes (Ikatlong Bahagi '78). |
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