Variety had the opportunity to speak at length with some unemployed aliens last Friday and Saturday and zeroed in on their common denominator: their having an umbrella permit may have been the reason that they were granted parole extensions.
Amor Balingit, Feliciano Mendoza Mangahas, and Nida Bautista all have umbrella permits.
Amor Balingit, who has been on Saipan since July 1995 showed to Variety last Friday evening the documents she presented to USCIS in support of her application for parole.
Balingit has an umbrella permit issued by the CNMI Department of Labor in 2009 which allows her to stay in the CNMI and work until Nov. 27, 2011.
Now she can continue to stay until Jan. 31, 2012.
Balingit confided to this reporter her utter disgust with the way she was treated by her former employers.
“They made me work so much,” she said.
She recounted that when she was hired in 1995, she knew her job would be as a janitress.
Sadly, she turned out to be more than just a janitress.
She claimed she was made to work as a dishwasher and house worker with no additional pay.
She told Variety she was employed by Kan Pacific from July 1995 to Jan. 1999. She moved to Mariana Resort and worked there until the restaurant closed in 2009. Then she was promised employment in one of Willie Tan’s businesses. She said this didn’t pan out.
“I was a janitress, housekeeping [staffer] and dishwasher,” she said.
With tears welling up, she told this reporter how, with no break, she would be taken to the employer’s house where she would continue to work “for a meager pay.”
At $3.05 an hour, Balingit would earn about $497 a month.
But she said this would cover all the services she worked from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a broken schedule.
Even long after the Mariana Resort had closed down, she said she was asked to work at the employer’s house for a $25 a week pay.
“I worked for them 8 hours a day,” she said. “I had no rest.”
She also confessed she had wanted to sue the owners but she feared retaliation and she did not have the financial means to do so.
“I am not even versed in the law to know what to do,” she said in Filipino.
She said, “I was hired a janitress but I would juggle between working at Kan Pacific, at the restaurant, at the office on Navy Hill and at their residence.”
She also said there were times when there were inspections that she was made to hide.
As if working for different locations were not enough, she said she was even made to serve as caddie for her boss for his golf tournaments.
The sixth child in a brood of 16 from Candaba, Pampanga province in the Philippines, Balingit is hoping she can find a job so she can send money back home.
Another jobless woman who received her parole is originally from Zhejiang Province, China. She told Variety in confidence that she has been married to an American citizen and she has a child.
Immediate relatives like her are allowed to apply for parole extensions as well as FAS citizens.
Nida Bautista, 55, has been on Saipan for 17 long years and worked as a house worker. She arrived in 1994 and she has a 15-year-old son.
Asked how she applied for parole, she said she presented her umbrella permit, a copy of her passport’s biographical page, Social Security, and a handwritten letter of request.
In that letter, Bautista asked USCIS to consider her application for parole as she has a son who has no one else to depend on.
She said her son, an American citizen, has no interest in going to the Philippines, saying that Saipan is their home.
Bautista said she filed her application on Oct. 13 and received her parole on Oct. 30. She said she was ecstatic over receiving her parole and she looks forward to finding a job and staying on Saipan for the sake of her son.
Another unemployed alien who received his parole is Feliciano Mangahas, 47, who has been on Saipan since Aug. 2004.
For Mangahas, he also presented his umbrella permit among other documents.
He told Variety he lost his job as a farmer in 2009 when his employer Vicente Seman decided not to renew his contract as he needed to get medical treatment in the U.S.
Mangahas, who originally hails from Nueva Ecija provinve, wrote an application letter stating that he is the sole breadwinner of the family and his children largely depend on his meager earnings.
He also told Variety there were six workers who applied for parole.
Of the six who filed on Oct. 13, two were immediate relatives and four were contract workers who recently lost their jobs.
Of the four contract workers, three have U.S. citizen children to take care of.
Asked how he survives on Saipan, he said he works part-time for $45 a week sometimes.
Despite not having a steady job, he said he continues to provide for his family. This is the reason he said that he requested to be allowed to stay so he can continue to send his children to school, and provide for their other needs.
Variety has yet to hear from other jobless workers who received their parole extensions.
In the meantime, Variety found out there’s a swelling number of nonresidents looking to have their paroles extended or apply for parole on account of the successes of this first batch.
Variety has yet to check with USCIS on what grounds these paroles have been granted.
Sponsorship schemes
Variety was also approached last week by nonresident workers who lost their jobs and are being lured by agencies promising them employment for a certain sum of money.
Variety learned that for $560 to over $1,000, these companies offer workers who pin their hopes on these agencies giving them employment for a chance to continue to stay on Saipan.
A worker said they were promised that even without an umbrella permit or parole they would be able to process their documents.
Variety obtained a copy of the requirements list furnished these workers by the agencies and the document neither bears the name of the company nor its official logo among other pertinent information that clearly show that it may be a bogus operation.
Variety found out that these agencies operate in Susupe and Dandan and for the interest of the workers their names and the agencies were withheld.
