Unemployed, Babauta said he is trying to make ends meet by doing odd jobs, selling coconuts and bush-cutting for neighbor’s backyard that on a lucky month fetch him around $100.
In the meantime, he said they get by with $576 in food stamps every month.
He said they have not missed a meal yet. He said, “As much as possible, my wife and I try our best to provide for our four children.”
For Babauta, the cost of utilities has soared during Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s administration and it’s taking its toll on his family.
He told Variety that he has been looking for employment for a long time but he hasn’t been successful. In the meantime, they are trying to apply for a nonimmigrant status for his wife so they could all go together and relocate to Guam where he said he hopes to find a job that will be enough to put food on the table for the entire family and pay their obligations.
Everywhere he goes, he said, he sees a lot of people struggling to survive on island. In his own neighborhood, several families can no longer afford to pay their utilities, he said.
Even his family he said finds the utility bill onerous. “It’s more than double the bill I used to get during the last administration.”
Rent, for them, is about $100.
“There are plenty of people suffering,” he told Variety on Monday.
He also said he appreciates the work that their Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan is doing for them.
“We are thankful to Kilili,” he said praising him for getting more federal support for folks like him.
He also expressed his frustration over the salaries of the leaders on Capital Hill.
With more people in dire economic straits, he suggested for the politicians to make their own sacrifices by cutting their own salaries.
Paring down the size of the government is an option he is also looking at. Cutting their expenses on Capital Hill he said will help more people.
Although they are still getting by, Babauta said he pities the others in his neighborhood and elsewhere on island who cannot afford to have a decent meal a day, put roof on top of their heads, or even enjoy the comfort of a light bulb at night.
“Life is just too hard,” he said.
On the other side of the neighborhood, there is a family whose lot in life is worse than Babauta’s.
The family’s patriarch who originally hails from Chuuk spoke to Variety this week on condition of anonymity.
It has been 31 years, he said, since he first moved to Saipan from Chuuk to visit an ailing relative — his father-in-law, a Chamorro.
Prior to moving to Saipan, he said he had been working for the Chuuk government until he found a job on Saipan.
Now, three decades hence, he has two sons — 29 and 25 years old — and three grandchildren, all U.S. citizens.
He remembers life was easy when the garment factories were still around. “My wife worked for the garment factory.”
With both of them employed, he said, they had money to support the entire family.
“We were better off before. We were in a good situation years ago,” he told Variety.
Now retired and with health problems, he said he has been getting $400 a month from Social Security.
Other than this, they do not avail of food stamps, among other benefits available to those economically challenged.
Even the unit they stay in at Mihaville he pays out of his own pocket. He said they don’t get any housing benefit either.
“I pay around $86 a month,” he said.
Variety inquired if he could qualify for any housing benefit, he said, “I don’t know.”
As for medical insurance, he said he is covered by Medical Indigents Insurance Program or MIAP.
Asked by Variety if his two sons are employed, he said they’re unemployed. “Nobody works in the family.”
He said his sons have been trying to find jobs but they have not been fortunate.
In the meantime, he tries to pay for whatever expenses his extended family incurs out of his SS checks.
Like Babauta, he also complains about the utility cost. “I need help with utilities.”
He told Variety, “We are in a bad situation nowadays. We need assistance with utilities.”
He said he used to pay around $60 monthly. But their utility cost shot up to $200 a month.
Since they could no longer afford to pay, their utilities reached $710 and they have been disconnected for a month.
“They should improve the economy,” he said, referring to the government.
Comparing the situation to the times when the garment factories were still on Saipan, “before there were plenty of people and plenty of cars on the roads.”
Now, he said, local people are fleeing the islands in search of a greener pasture.
“Many are moving away from this place,” he said.
The island’s garment factories have either shut down or relocated following the liberalization of international trade rules in 2005.
He noted that the minimum wage in Chuuk is “so low.”
Chuuk’s minimum wage for government employees goes at a starting rate of $1.25 an hour. The private sector does not have a minimum wage.
