Grandma bids g’bye to her grandson as exodus of Pinoys from Dubai continues

DUBAI: The ongoing exodus of Filipinos from Dubai due to the global pandemic has not been without scenes that touches the heart, among them that of a grandma and her six-year-old “apo” whose mom took to the airport for a few more bonding moments before “lola” boarded the plane for Manila.

Sixty-four-year old Elizabeth Macaraya Labora of Cebu, herself an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) since 1996, bade bye-byes to her youngest grandson, six-year-old, Biel whom she has helped raise.

“Sinama ko po sa airport kasi baka magtaka na biglang wala ang ‘nanay’ nya sa bahay,” said Eli Jesusa Labora Odilao, travel consultant and Labora’s daughter, referring to the grandmother.

“Super close sila ng nanay ko. Sya kasi ang pinaka-bunso na apo ni mama at naa-alagaan din nya,” Odilao added.

She said her mother has been around since Biel was “small.”

“Andito na si mama helping me look after him while he was growing up. Si mama din was also helping me a lot with the financial, moral support,” said Odilao, herself the youngest of Labora’s three children.

According to Odilao, her mother joined the Filipino diaspora back in 1996 to work as a caregiver in Taiwan and then Hong Kong. Labora also worked in Saudi Arabia as an all-around staff at a salon for seven years before moving to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where she was employed for 11 years also at a salon.

“She’s a hardworking mom, kahit sa Pilipinas pa. Aside sa may support sa tatay at sa mga kapatid ng tatay ko, she worked for us,” said Odilao, who recalls that she was in fourth year high school when her mother went abroad.

According to Odilao, her mother had returned to the Philippines after her contract expired in 2017.

“Tapos, pinapunta ko sya dito (Dubai) as tourist last November 2018 kasi na miss nya anak ko at para naman may katuwang ako to look after my son while I went back to the corporate world,” said Odilao.

“But due to a financial situation that hit my family here, exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, need ko rin munang pauwin si mama,” she lamented.

Labora was part of the latest batch of 354 Filipinos repatriated in the evening of Aug.10 on board a chartered Philippine Airlines flight PR 8 659 from Dubai International Airport (DXB).

Consul General Paul Raymund Cortes said around 1,800 OFWs have been repatriated by the consulate in Dubai through its Assistance to Nationals section since June when the first batch of 370 left on board Cebu Pacific flight 5J 19 middle of that month.

Many more OFWs have gone home either through tickets provided for by their employers or bought on their own.

Odilao said she is grateful to Cortes as well as Vice Consul Elizabeth Ramos for working on her mother’s repatriation. The consulate has senior citizens among its priorities, which also include people with medical conditions, children and expectant mothers.

Aside from the ones who left on Aug.10, there was also a prior batch of 354 OFWs who left DXB in the evening of Aug. 5 on board Philippine Airlines flight PR 659. 

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), some 35,656 of the 50,887 overseas Filipinos brought home in July were from the Middle East – with the biggest number of repatriates coming home from the UAE at14,948.

The UAE is second home to some 750,000 documented OFWs with about half a million of them staying in Dubai, officials said.