By Manny Lector

Opportunity to Work Overseas

An opportunity to work overseas came in 1986. I was then Assistant Director for Traffic Management in the City Government of Makati, having assumed the position after taking a six-month course in Traffic Engineering and Management at the University of the Philippines. I was also completing a Master’s course in Computer Science at the Ateneo de Manila University. The job offer also aligned with my Industrial Engineering course in UP, and would utilize computer applications that I was training in.

Thus, began the journey that would bring me to the full career of 26 years in industrial engineering with the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, a multi-cultural tertiary hospital directly under the auspices of the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

 I started as Procedures Analyst, whose primary function was to review, document and improve administrative and operational processes. Alongside these functions was the use of computers to facilitate processes and documentation. Personal computer applications were then becoming popular, and my Organization and Management  department depended much on my academic and computer background. I had to quickly gain proficiency on Microsoft applications, namely, Access, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Two projects that I had helped develop became major outputs of my department: these were the Committee Index System, an Access-based information system employing the relational database system management, and the Activity Measurement System, an Excel-based recording system with macros that run to help automate the report preparation and production. These were adopted Hospital-wide and were made more manageable via the Intranet.

By 2012, after the 26-year stint, I had assumed the position of Industrial Engineering Specialist, with the job grade equivalent to a department head and with the job grade and salary ranked highest among all Filipinos employed in the Hospital.

Routine Family Life

My family joined me in the early 90s. We settled in the routine family life in the Kingdom, very carefully treading and respecting the custom and culture of the country. Nonetheless, I had frequent bouts with homesickness, which were eased during the ample free time spent with my family and our Filipino community in Riyadh.

I was thankful and relived when my wife Villa decided to join me in Saudi Arabia, leaving her job as Department Head in the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, where she was being groomed for promotion to director. A few months after her arrival in the Kingdom, she gained employment as a Hospital Assistant with secretarial tasks assisting medical staff. She easily adjusted to the job.

Our daughter Charmaine Bernadette enrolled in the International Philippine School of Riyadh, an elementary and secondary school sponsored by the Philippine Embassy. When she completed her elementary and high school, we brought her home to the Philippines, where she enrolled in Assumption College in Makati.

She graduated with the degree in Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2004. She did not return to Saudi Arabia, as she decided to work in the country as a Special Education teacher. We were glad that she was liking her teaching sessions with children with special needs, as these encounters were always on her lips.

Charmaine, who became active in Singles for Christ (SFC) married Eren Lyle Villegas, also with SFC, in 2010. They eventually decided to become missionaries for Couples for Christ.

They have done mission work in several countries, and have been based in the Vatican since 2019, where they are Administrator for CFC Vatican Office and CFC Missionary for Europe. Prior to this assignment, they were CFC missionaries in Kenya from 2014 to 2019.

Community Activities in Saudi Arabia

In early 2001, my wife and I accepted the invitation to become members of the global lay organization – Couples for Christ or CFC. We embraced CFC totally, that in a short amount of time, we assumed leadership roles — household leaders, then Unit leaders. In 2005, CFC’s Gawad Kalinga, a social development project with the objective of providing housing units for the Philippines’ poorest of the poor, was introduced in CFC Saudi Arabia. I was appointed Director of Gawad Kalinga KSA. Gawad Kalinga KSA was registered in and recognized by the Philippine Embassy as a Filipino community organization, separate from the CFC KSA.

From 2005 to 2008, GK KSA was promoted in the cities of Riyadh, Dammam in Eastern Region, and Jeddah in the Western Region, and was able to raise funds for some 50 housing units, including 40 housing units in Padre Burgos, Quezon.
From 2007 until 2011, I became the National Director of CFC KSA. Among its accomplishments were (a) CFC spread not only in Riyadh, but also in the Eastern and Western Regions, and (b) CFC KSA is also credited with having founded CFC Seychelles, which has now become one of the more established CFC communities in Africa.
In 2008 to 2009, I was designated as the CFC Country Coordinator for Seychelles, which gave me the opportunity to visit the country and conduct training to members. Likewise, I was assigned Country Coordinator for CFC Egypt in 2011 to 2012, and had the chance to meet with CFC Egypt members in Ismailiyah, Sinai Area.

We also found time for fitness activities. In the 90s prior to our active participation in CFC, my family was active in the sport of tennis. Charmaine trained and joined the ladies’ tournament competitions. My wife Villa was active managing tennis teams, and I helped organize inter-Hospital team tennis tournaments and ladies’ tennis competitions, as Chairman of the Tennis Organizing Committees. I also helped form the Pexman Multi-Purpose Cooperative, which eventually was registered with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). Last but not the least, I became an elective member of the Riyadh OFW Congress in 1997 until about 2003.  The Riyadh OFW Congress was organized by then Consul General, now Undersecretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Jesus “Gary” Domingo. He envisioned the OFW Congress to become the official assembly of Filipino community leaders in Riyadh. Membership to the 21-strong OFW Congress was through a Filipino community-wide election.

Reintegrating Back Home

We left Saudi Arabia in late 2012, and settled in a condominium in Mandaluyong. We had prepared the condo early on so that the residence change would somehow be smoother. But the tough part though was re-orienting ourselves to the life back home. Reversed culture shock is real!

Metro Manila was much too crowded,  noisy and polluted. And we struggled to find the right words to speak, lest we would be marked strangers or worse aliens. We frowned on ladies wearing short “shorts”, and men donning long “shorts”. In Saudi Arabia, ladies are well-covered from head to toe, with their faces veiled.

In 2013, I enrolled in a course on Real Estate Management, preparing to be a Real Estate Broker. I obtained my license as Real Estate Broker, and sold mostly condo units until early 2020 when Covid stopped much of everything on its path. Nowadays, I manage the rental of condo units, some of which I had also sold. We also earn from the proceeds of fruit-bearing trees from a piece of farm land we acquired with our savings from our overseas jobs.

My family continued being members of CFC. From 2014 until today, my wife and I have been core members of the CFC Migrants Program (now called Missio Amare Migranti).  During the Covid saga, the CFC Migrants Program introduced the Tawid OFW Program (TOP), that I conceptualized. This Program aimed to provide temporary financial assistance to OFW families whose breadwinners (OFW husband, wife, son or daughter) lost their jobs or were forcedly repatriated. The concept was readily adopted by the CFC’s International Council, who helped in funding the program.

From 2019 to 2024, I was CFC Mission Country Coordinator for CFC Saipan. When we visited Saipan In 2019, Villa and I helped reorganize the community and conduct the Christian Life Program, the entry point to becoming a CFC member.

In coordination with OWWA, our Migrants joined a team that provided moral values teaching to ODW Family Circles in 14 cities in Metro Manila in 2019, 2023 and 2024.

MA MIGRANTI (the new name of CFC Migrants Program) seeks to extend this activity with the concurrence of OWWA, in order to deliver these important teachings to more OFW families in OWWA’s OFW Family Circles.

Finally

Back to the covid saga. We did catch the virus, but the vaccines helped lessen the impact. But then my chronic kidney disease (CKD) advanced to stage 5 and for months, I had anxiety and sleepless nights. I had a lot of prayers offered for me, and these helped. One night, as I lay restlessly, I felt God speaking to me – reminding me that He had cared for me since I was little. From that time on, I found peace and accepted that He still is caring for me.

I have since started dialysis, and I thank my doctors and nurses and staff for taking such good care of me. A few weeks ago, through the help of my doctors, I received good news: I have been accepted as a potential kidney recipient in the Human Organ Preservation Effort (HOPE) of National Kidney Transplant and Institute. I now wait on the Lord to let this come to pass.

Meanwhile, we are grateful for so many blessings – among them, the honor of having made it as MOFYA finalist. We pray that those who serve and advocate for OFWs and their families continue to be empowered and dedicated to the service. May God be praised.