By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

A NONRESIDENT worker not only wants his last legal employer of record to pay for his airplane ticket to return to the Philippines almost a year after his 45-day transfer period expired, but also claimed that he was illegally employed by a former Saipan lawmaker and a Korean-owned construction company.
Lorenzo Mariano, 49, said he is aware of the consequences of sharing his employment history on Saipan but he asked for understanding, saying he just wants to go back home before his health further deteriorates.
“I am afraid I will end up like that worker who died waiting for a plane ticket to go back home,” he said in an interview with Variety.
The Department of Labor gave Mariano 45 days or up to March 17, 2006 to find a transfer employer as a result of a labor case against his employer at that time — Aqualyte, which was then owned by Cid S. Mostales.
Mostales yesterday said he offered Mariano, who worked as a water delivery service crewmember, an airline ticket after the 45-day transfer period expired, but he said Mariano declined the offer, saying he had found a new employer.
“That’s the last time I saw him…I offered him the ticket and I would have dropped him at the airport. I should have been out of the picture because I did everything Labor told me to do,” said Mostales, adding that Mariano should have been deported long ago by the Division of Immigration in the absence of legal transfer employment.
Mariano claimed that a day before his 45-day transfer employment expired on March 17, he found a transfer employer — Tropical Gardens Inc. owned by former Rep. Frank Aldan, R-Saipan.
“I applied to Tropical Gardens as a heavy equipment operator (on March 16). Aldan said he would test me first so he asked me to operate the heavy equipment so he’d know whether he could employ me. I helped in the landscaping for the Veterans Cemetery from March 24 to July 2006 and Tropical Gardens paid me,” Mariano said, showing receipts of payments received from Tropical Gardens from March to July 2006 although not on a regular basis.
Mariano said he was waiting for Tropical Gardens to give him employment papers but there were none.
“I know it was my mistake I didn’t ask for the papers. I was waiting for the company to give me my employment papers but they didn’t give me anything. I know it’s illegal but I trusted he knew the law because he’s a former congressman…until they stopped calling me to report for work,” said Mariano.
Aldan said he did ask Mariano to show his heavy equipment operation skills.
“We gave him a try for two weeks, but he wasn’t a good heavy equipment operator so I didn’t want to hire him…But he said he didn’t have a place to stay and couldn’t find a job so I let him stay at the company barracks. I was being a Good Samaritan to him. We’re not his employer…To offset the barracks rent, he was asking for something to do and that’s when he worked for the landscaping at the veterans cemetery,” Aldan told Variety.
Aldan said one of the reasons there are many illegal nonresident workers in the CNMI is the implementation of the law giving a 45-day transfer employment period to aliens.
“And then after 45 days, these workers just disappear. You don’t know if they are working or not. That’s the fault of the law. It’s a bad law and it should be repealed. That’s why we have lots of illegal aliens here,” said Aldan, adding that Mariano should instead go after his last employer of record.
Mariano said when there was no more work for him at Tropical Gardens, he left the company barracks and lived with friends.
“I found another employer, ASC Construction. It’s Korean-owned. They were paying me but I didn’t have a contract with them,” he said. ASC Construction yesterday said they didn’t employ Mariano.
After a single project, Mariano said he was unemployed again.
He claimed his health deteriorated and that’s when he decided to just go back to the Philippine and be with his family.
“I hope my last employer gives me a plane ticket,” he said, adding that he sought the help of the federal labor ombudsman’s office to ask the CNMI Department of Labor to go after Aqualyte — his last legal employment of record — to give him a ticket back home.
Mariano also approached the Philippine Consulate General, the Philippine Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office — which has been giving him food. “I thank them for helping me. I just want to go home,” said Mariano, who is now waiting for CNMI Labor’s decision whether he will be given a ticket back home courtesy of the government alien repatriation fund or through his last legal employer of record.