A Day In The Life Of A Morong Impliyado

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A Day In The Life Of A Morong Impliyado Rey SM. Aquino

      Every workday early in the morning the typical Morong Impliyado gets up and takes shower outside their balon or hand-pump well. He checks and fills up their tapayan for his wife and children to use while he is gone. And while taking a bath he goes around the yard and water the vegetable and flower plants.

       Meantime the wife is busy at the kalan preparing fried rice, tinapa and fried eggs. The night before she had ironed the shirt and pair of pants her husband would be wearing. The cycle is repeated everyday.

      After breakfast our Impliyado is set to go to work in Manila or nearby town. He reminds his wife and or children if they are awake about things he forgot to do earlier. While still talking to his family he hears a busina, too-toot--toot-toot, that sounded like “palapitak.” He hurries down the stairs while saying goodbye to his family.

      He has to blurry because a light minute late getting in the Hasikaso Raytraco bus would mean lots of teasing and kibitzing from the other Impliyados already in the bus. They are a bunch of happy working-family-men.

      “Nakaw, ay ano ba naman at ikaw ay one minute late. Wari ko ay naglabin-labing ka pa sa may hagranan ah.” (Gee, why are you one minute late. Seems like you did some kissy-kissy by the staircase). And the teasing goes on until another Impliyado gets in late and relieve the aggravation from the earlier one. This time it’s his turn to tukso the late comer. Seems like they are in a school bus and every one has favorite seat.

      And so the Hasikaso is almost full when it drives out of paglabas where the Impliyados know what season it is by the aroma of the air coming from the rice field. It is planting time they could smell the young rasi and hear the laughter of the magtatanim; if it’s harvest time the sweet smell of newly cut rice stalk fills the air. The Kunduktor starts punching round-trip tickets and hands them away.

      Whomever they see (farmers) walking to palayan, conversation starts about that person. There never was a dull moment inside the Hasikaso. Most of the time when they ran out of things to talk about they picked up where they left off the previous night.

      Hasikaso stops in the next town and tuksuhan starts again. If a woman gets in the Hasikaso as if in one command the Impliyados stand up offering the seat. This starts another round of teasing among them. The Inspektor gets in the bus and started counting the passengers…with his nose. Goes over the tickets, signs the tab and gets off a mile further away. His job is done. Now he waits for another Hasikaso going the other way.
One by one the Impliyado “para” and gets off the Hasikaso. By the time the Hasikaso reaches the pier (outmost part of Manila) it has dislodged all the Impliyados. The Hasikaso returns to the istasyon somewhere in Divisoria where it makes another two or trip roundtrips. Then waits late in the afternoon to pickup the Impliyados – reverse way.

      The Impliyados work all day without any connection with their family since they have no home phones. They are totally separated from the events happening in Morong.

      At lunchtime some carries maluto and others depend on the pombreras that the caterer around their office building or work site offers. The menu is always “surprise of the day” or what ever is on the pombrera. Bahala na.

      Lunch is about P1.25 for rice, two ulams. Hasikaso roundtrip ticket to Manila with transfer is P.70 cents. Figure this out – the minimum wage at that time was P3.00/hr (I forgot was it P15 per day?). There is always enough money for pasalubong to his family.

      After work bout 4:30pm the Hasikaso threads the way back to the places where it has dropped off the Impliyados. The kibitzing and huntahan starts again. Picks up where it left off early morning.

      It is 7pm by the time the Hasikaso arrived in Morong. The wife is ready for their dinner. The kids most probably had eaten and are doing their homework or playing batang piriso on the street. Dinner is not only the time to share food but also the time to catch up with the events of the day.

      “Iyong mga manok ay nakalusot sa kulungan and two of the tanrang are still out.” (Two of the roosters went through a big hole on the fence.)

      “There is a note from the teacher about PTA meeting on Sunday. No pintakasi since the meeting starts at 1pm.” While sawsawing the sinigang and balawbalaw, the wife hears grumbling from her husband who pretended not to have heard her.

       “Iyong isa mong anak ay nasaktan during the carpentry class. Better talk to Iklo riyan sa kabila.” (One of your son got hurt making a project. Go see Iklo at his house.)

      “Tuition is due next Friday otherwise your children won’t be able to take their test according to Miss Masikip.”

      “Kaninang hapon ay naisauli ng Kumpareng Anong Kandapla ang hiniram niyang lagareng bakal. Iyo ngang tingnan kung walang sira.” (This afternoon your Kumpare returned the hacksaw he borrowed. Please check if everything is okay.”

      “Tomorrow on your way to work please do bot forget to return to the Hasikaso tsuper the umbrella you used the other night.”

      “Bukas pag-uwi mo ay huwag mong kalimutan ang pasalubong na taeng pusa.”
(On your way home tomorrow night don’t forget to bring home taeng pusa treats.)
The surprised husband replies, “Aba at naglilihi ka yata!”

      And the conversation goes on until after the wife finishes washing the dishes. The Impliyado in his shorts and sando while fanning himself by the bintana hollers to his children at the street, “Hoy Jun, Cessie, pumarini na kayo at gabi na!”

      And the day in the life of a Morong Impliyado ends. Tomorrow is another day. The cycle begins again. Who knows maybe the tanrangs are still somewhere (oh well, got to attend PTA anyway), the tuition fees are paid, a bag of taeng pusa made the wife happy….. Oops! The payong, he forgot to return to the Hasikaso tsuper. Ah, saka na lamang.

      By the way who are these Morong Impliyados?

      They are policemen, firemen, lawyers, accountants, newspaper reporters, clerks, shippers, pier workers, sales reps, restaurant counter helpers, cooks, chefs, waitress, waiters, engineers, architects, painters, masons, carpenters, postal office workers, pharmaceutical reps, department stores workers, and hospital staff to name a few.

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