The SHOW-UP

Published on ABS-CBN News Online Beta (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com)

by Carmela Fonbuena, Newsbreak
with research assistance from
Victoria Camille Tulad, Newsbreak
09/14/2009 7:56 PM

Aileen was chosen from a bevy of young girls who showed up in a hotel and was married off to a Korean, more than twice her age, the next day.

It was Lovi, a co-worker in a cheese stick factory in Fairview, Quezon City (Where is this factory?) who introduced 19-year old Aileen to Annie, a marriage broker.

As a single mother, Aileen was at her wits’ end trying to raise a son who was born out of wedlock from a rape committed by a former co-worker. Her weekly income of P700 at the cheese sticks factory was hardly enough for herself, much less for her son and her grandmother.

Aileen, who hails from a province in southern Luzon, comes from family a of 16 children, so poor and destitute that when she was six months old, her parents gave her up to an aunt who has no family. Three other siblings live with relatives in Laguna. Four others died young.

Like many Filipinos, she dreamt of working abroad to help her family and provide her son a good future.

“Lovie talked to me. She offered me a job abroad, in Korea. I asked, 'What kind of job?' She said it's factory work. The salary is good but before I can go to Korea, I should marry a Korean,” she said.

Aileen dismissed the idea, but Lovie persuaded her and other co-workers at the factory to give it a try.

Aileen recognized an opportunity to get her family out of poverty and eventually gave in to Lovie’s urgings. In November 2007, she was introduced to Annie and appeared in her first show-up. She was not chosen.

But a few weeks later, Annie called her again for another show-up. Apparently, a Korean wanted to marry her after viewing her video in the Internet. Aileen remembered the video was taken when she was inside the van on her way to the show up.

She told Annie she was no longer interested to be matched, but she wouldn't hear any of it. When she didn't appear at the show-up―and the Korean had to choose among the women present―Annie was furious. Annie stormed her house and pressured her and her family to pay for what they had already spent on her. She threatened to call her police contacts if she didn’t.

“She was telling my grandmother to tell me to appear in the show-up because they’ve spent so much on me. My grandmother said to me, ‘What can you do? They spent on you. I said, ‘I don’t know. Let’s just see. (Sabi ng lola ko, e ano magagawa mo dyan e marami ka na raw nagastos sa kanila. Sabi ko, bahala na. Gumanon na lang ako).”

On December 15, Aileen was persuaded to appear in another show up. It was there that she met Ji-Wong.

“Put on some make up, Aileen. How will you get picked? Make yourself beautiful,.”Annie told her during the show-up in a hotel in Cubao, Quezon City..

Annie called a girl to work on Aileen's face with powder, blush and lipstick. In a short while, she and five other young girls paraded before Ji-Wong and Mr. Soon and answered the Koreans’ questions.

All five girls, simply dressed in jeans and shirts, were either high school graduates or college dropouts.

“I felt a bit like a prostitute. I don’t like wearing make up,” Aileen told Newsbreak

“The other girls were all so pretty. They really looked like sales ladies. They were so excited,” she added. But Ji-Wong had his eyes on the simple and reluctant Aileen and chose her.

How did it feel knowing she was going to marry Ji-Wong? “I planned to escape. But I said, never mind. (Balak ko tumakas. Pero sabi ko, bahala na nga),” she related.

The following day, Dec. 16, 2007, they were wed in a restaurant. Aileen's grandmother, her uncle, and her cousin stood as witnesses to their wedding vows and first kiss.

Also present at the wedding were two people who played important roles in the lives of the new couple—Mr. Lee, the Korean contact and translator and Annie, his Filipino counterpart who made sure that Aileen would behave appropriately

“You are very lucky, Aileen,” a delighted Annie kept repeating to Aileen on her wedding day. Lucky because Ji-Wong, according to the business card he gave Aileen, is a “manager.”

They didn't know what business he was engaged in but “manager” sounded good enough for them. Annie promised her he would agree to regularly send money to her family in the Philippines.

But Aileen couldn’t stand Ji-Wong. “Ayoko nga mapasubo dyan kasi ang baho ng hininga. Sabi ko, parang hindi ako natunawan a. Sana umuwi na sila.” (His breath smelled so bad, I just wanted him to go home.)

“Sabi sa amin ni Ate Celia, pag mag-asawa na kayo wala na kayong magagawa. Pumayag na kayo kasi wala namang mawawala. Asawa mo naman e. Sabi ko, kahit na may anak ako. Iba pa rin yun.),” Aileen said. ( My Ate Celia told me that I cannot do anything anymore because he is already my husband. I know I already have a son but this just did not feel right.)

She played along anyway. It didn't matter how she felt for Ji-Wong. Annie had her by the throat. If she escaped, she knew Annie would not stop hounding her.

Besides, she did want the money. With the promise of regular remittances to her family, she resigned herself to her fate.

Ji-Wong returned to Korea four days after the wedding. Mr. Lee promised him Aileen would soon join him there. But Aileen reported Annie’s operations to the Commission on Overseas Filipinos (CFC). The case is now pending at the Quezon City regional Trial Court.

Aileen admitted she still thinks of her husband Ji-Wong, who continues to wait for her in Korea. Aileen said Ji-Wong doesn’t know about the legal case in the Philippines because Mr. Lee, the Korean recruiter, is supposedly telling him the paperwork is delaying her departure.

Aileen said she is thankful that CFO saved her. “I could have been killed and brought home in a coffin (Baka mapatay na lang ako dun tapos pag-uwi, kabaong na),” she told Newsbreak.

But Aileen continues to live in fear. Since the case, Aileen had left her home in Quezon City for fear that the recruiters would continue to hound her and her family, who had blamed her for dragging them in her problems. Her aunt refuses to give up her son. They wouldn’t even let her talk to him anymore.

“Maybe when I find a good job and be able to help them, they will welcome me again,” she lamented.

While Ji-Wong remains to be her husband, Aileen has started a new life with another man with whom she already has a second son. “He’s a nice guy. He takes care of me,” Aileen said.

At the same time, she feels sorry for Ji-Wong and thinks of him as a victim of the recruiters.

“Sometimes I want to call him. But I am always overtaken by fear. I want to call him right now (Balak ko nga tawagan na lang sya. Pero nauunahan ako ng takot. Sabi ko, wag na lang. Gusto ko nga tawagan ngayon e).” – Newsbreak