Title
Mary Felene Varon and Fleur V. Garagan
BA Sociology
University of the Philippines Visayas

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. QUESTIONNAIRE 3- 4
3. FIELDWORK OUTCOMES 4 Response Outcomes 4-7
4. EVALUATION 8 Experiences, impressions, and pictures of the second fieldwork 8-10
5. APPENDIX 10 Appendix A: List of Questions in Kiniray-a Version 10-11

1. Introduction
According to a research conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, there are factors that change and reinforce connections between rural and urban areas. These factors include information technology, improved education, paved roads, and yearning for employment. Each year, ruralites in low- income countries such as the Philippines are going to urban places in exchange of economic security for the households that they have left in rural areas. Recent studies in Bangladesh, Thailand, and the Philippines provide insights into reasons for migration and how it plays a part in a household’s strategy to escape poverty. For our second paper in Rural Sociology, we were tasked to look for two families with unmarried children working in the city. The search for two families was not easy due to the fact that it was one of the poblacion barangays of Miag-ao which meant that they have easy access to opportunities and enterprises that are prevalent in the town. The establishment of the University of the Philippines also contribute to the employment of some residents in Barangay Mat-y. Some work in the offices of the said university.
Our interview with the respondents obtained set of information about their children working in the city. The interview included questions about the location of their children in the city, their educational attainment, children’s monthly income, the remittance that parents receive every time the children have their salary, and even their age and gender are put into consideration. Through this activity, we are able to distinguish how other factors like the original income of the parents affect and influence the decisions of the children to work in the urban areas of the province.
The interview with the first respondent was conducted on July 25, 2013 in Brgy. Mat-y, Iloilo. The second respondent’s interview was held on July 31, 2013 in their house in Brgy. Mat-y, Iloilo, Miag-ao. Each interview session with the respondents lasted for 30 minutes.
2. Questionnaire
Subject

1. Family Composition or membership
2. The number of children working in the city and what kind of jobs do they have.
3. Sources of income of the family

The areas covered in each section of the questionnaire are as follows:

4. Family expenditure: where do most of their parents’ and the children’s incomes go--- food, schooling of younger siblings, utilities (electricity, water, telephone bills, etc.)
5. Special occasions or days that the children working in the city are looking forward to go home to and the days when parents come to visit them in their place in the city
6. Decisions and influences affecting the children’s employment in the city.
7. Respondents’ plan of migrating in the city

The full questionnaire is provided at Appendix A.
3. Fieldwork Outcomes
The interview with the first respondent was conducted last July 25, 2013, three o clock in the afternoon at the balcony of the Delos Santos Family in Brgy. Mat-y, Miag-ao, Iloilo.
The second respondent’s interview was conducted last July 30, 2013, three o clock in the afternoon at the balcony of the Serdeña Family in Brgy. Mat-y, Miag-ao, Iloilo.
The interview with the two respondents lasted for 30 minutes each.
Response outcomes
First Family:
The respondent, Mrs. Lynette de los Santos, is a parent of three children. She is separated with her husband. Their first child, Peter de los Santos, Jr., is a graduate of Southern Iloilo Polytechnic College who took up Hotel and Restaurant Management. He is already 19 years old. The second child is Michael de los Santos, 18 years old, had stopped going to school. The youngest child is Lyn Joy de los Santos, 17 years old, is currently studying in Southern Iloilo Polytechnic College. She takes up Hotel and Restaurant Management in the said school. Mrs. de los Santos is a laundry woman, earning an estimated sum of Php4500 every month. She is also working as a Barangay Health Aid and earns Php750 every month. Peter de los Santos, Jr. is the one working in the city but goes home everyday. All of Mrs. de los Santos’ children stay with her in their home.
Peter works as a waiter in the Red Ribbon restaurant in SM City Iloilo. He had been working there for almost a year already. This is his first job after graduating in SIPC. It was his choice to work in the city. He earns Php7750 per month. He sends fifty percent of his income to his mother every fifteen days. Mrs. de los Santos includes this money to the budget for their necessities.
Table 1 shows the monthly allocation of their budget that came from Mrs. Delos Santos’ income as a laundry woman and a Barangay Health Aide. This also includes Peter de los Santos’ income as a waiter. The sum of all their monthly salary is Php13,000. The largest part of their budget is allotted for food. The education of the second child gets a large part from the budget. Peter’s transportation and food also gets a large percentage from the monthly budget. The other basic needs of the family and their utilities are part of the remaining money of their budget.
Table 1. Delos Santos Family’s Monthly Budget | Amount in Philippine Peso | Percentage | 1. Food | 4000 | 31% | 2. Education (Tuition and Miscellaneous fees, Allowance, Transportation, School Projects, and etc.) | 3500 | 27% | 3. Other basic needs (e. g. for personal hygiene, etc.) | 1300 | 10% | 4. Transportation and Food of child working in the city | 3700 | 28% | 5. Electricity (TV, electric fan, light, flat iron) | 500 | 4% | TOTAL | Php13,000.00 | 100% |
Note: The Amount in Philippine Peso is the estimation of the respondents’ monthly allocation of budget. It may vary.
Peter stayed in a boarding house in Bolilao, Mandurriao, Iloilo City before. He stayed there for almost three months. Mrs. de los Santos did not mention how much he spent before in his boarding house.
During the time when Peter was still staying in a boarding house, his Mrs. de los Santos does not visit him. Instead, Peter is going home every week ends. He would sometimes bring home products from Red Ribbon to his family.
Mrs. de los Santos agrees that her son would work in the city. It can help to add in their family’s income. The family, including Peter de los Santos, has no plans of moving in to the city. They have already established their residence in Brgy. Mat-y. It is already hard for them to transfer in the urban community.
Second Family:
The respondent, Mrs. Teresita Serdeña, is a mother of four children. She is a plain housewife. Her husband, Mr. Danilo Serdeña, is a seaman earning Php30000 a month. Their first child, Tessa Nie Serdeña, is 22 years old. She got her Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of San Agustin. The second child is Laarnie Serdeña, 19 years old, is studying in the University of San Agustin taking up Hotel and Restaurant Management. The third child, Dante Serdeña, is 15 years old and currently studying in Saint Louis de Marillac. Also studying in the same school is their youngest child, Danilo Serdeña Jr., who is 13 years old. They do not have any other sources of income expect for Mr. Serdeña’s income and their eldest eldest child’s salary.
Tessa Nie Serdeña is teaching the Filipino subject in the University of San Agustin. After she graduated from the same school, she was already accepted to be a teacher. Tessa Nie has been working for 2 years already. Her monthly salary is Php19000.
It was Tessa’s choice to work in the city. While teaching, she stays in a boarding house near the school. She lives there together with her younger sister. Tessa is the one paying for the monthly rent which costs Php4500.
Tessa gives her parents money if they needed it. She does not give regularly because she still spends for her tuition fees in taking up her Master’s Degree. She also spends for her own food and allowance.
Table 2 illustrates the monthly budget of the Serdeña family. It is from the salary of Mr. Danilo Serdeña and Tessa Nie Serdeña which is Php49000 in total. The children’s education covers the largest percentage of the whole budget. All the children are studying in private schools. The food and board and lodging expenses also get the large part of the monthly allocation of budget. They send Php2000 for Mr. Serdeña’s mother every month

Table 2. Monthly Budget of the Serdeña Family | Amount in Philippine Peso | Percentage | 1. Food | 8500 | 17% | 2. Education (Tuition and miscellaneous fees, Transportation, Allowance, School projects) | 14600 | 30% | 3. Other basic needs (e.g. for personal hygiene, etc.) | 3500 | 7% | 4.Electricity (Television, Electric fan, Computer, flat iron, refrigerator, lights, water) | 1500 | 3% | 5.Telephone | 500 | 2% | 6. For the grandmother | 2000 | 4% | 7. Tuition fee and other school fees for the eldest child’s Master’s Degree, | 6000 | 12% | 8. Boarding and Lodging (Boarding House rent, food) | 7500 | 15% | 9. Savings for family emergencies (e.g. sudden hospitalization, illness, etc.) | 4900 | 10% | TOTAL | Php49,000 | 100% |
Note: The Amount in Philippine Peso is the estimation of the respondents’ monthly allocation of budget. It may vary.
Tessa and her younger sister come home every weekends. They would usually bring food for their parents and other siblings. If they are in the city, their mother would visit them twice a month. Mrs. Serdeña would bring them rice or any other necessities like canned goods and instant noodles.
Mrs. Serdeña leaves the decision to her children whether where they want to go to work. She supports her eldest child when she chose to work in the city. Her family has no plans to migrate in the city because they have already built their permanent house in Brgy. Mat-y.
4. Evaluation
Experiences, impressions, and pictures of the second fieldwork
Unlike the first fieldwork in Rural Sociology, in the second activity, we are experiencing the adversities that we have never encountered before. If it weren’t for the aid of the Brgy. Captain and the Kagawad, we would have never surpassed these challenges. It was really heart warming seeing the Brgy Captain and Brgy Kagawad in the Barangay Hall helping us to search for families with children working in the cities. Mr. Cubita, the Kagawad was actually our first respondent in our first fieldwork in Rural Sociology.
In 1991, 13 percent of rural households received remittances from migrant children or parents (Cox and Jimenez 1995). According to studies, migration of parents or children internationally received more attention than movement of a member of the family into the urban areas of the Philippines. They added that the internal migration is just as significant as the international migration. Both migrations aided in the betterment of a rural household in terms of their economic stability.
There are factors affecting children to work in urban areas away from their family rather than staying in their town. Educational attainment, gender, parent’s income and etc influenced them to migrate. The respondents of Brgy Mat-y told us that the eldest of the family works in the city. Both the children finished a college degree. Better educated children are very much aware of the opportunities in the urban areas. They are more likely to uproot themselves from rural homes to find employment in an urban area compared to the less educated children. Aside from educational attainment, gender also plays a role in searching for employment. The result of the second field work doesn’t show dominance of one gender than the other, but in other studies on who are more likely to go to urban areas, they presented that women have a higher percentage of transferring to urban areas than men. Filipinas are among the most geographically mobile of Asian women (Lauby and Stark 1988). The family’s income plays a role of the departure of children to urban areas. The low income of the parents added to the chances of the child getting involved on jobs outside the rural area. The respondents said that the children were firm in their decision to work in the city. The respondents were not involved in the decision making but they believed that their economic situation triggered their children’s choice.
The experience was unlike any other, because we literally went through the storm to get to the second respondent’s house. The weather and our schedules were not really in harmony. Approaching the households was like spotting where the pot of gold at the end of rainbow was. At some point, it was really rewarding. The respondents are really hospitable. When we asked their permission to have an appointment for the interview, they positively responded to us. Not only were we gaining basic information about the respondents and answers to our questionnaire, we also gained lessons. These are lessons that we can actually apply in our life. We should be very conscious on the way we spend our money. After all, the allowance was coming from the pockets of our parents who work arduously to send us to prestigious schools. In that moment, we were realizing the agony and the worries that we are putting our parents into when we go to the boarding house late at night and the times when we skip meals. The second activity was an eye opener for us. We should appreciate and be thankful for the things whether they are beneficial for us or not. When we saw the smiles that reached the eyes of our respondents when we gave our token, our hearts smiled too.

From left to right (Manang Lynette, Fleur, and Felene)
Manang Lynette had just finished washing the clothes when we went to her house for the interview.

From left to right (Manang Teresita, Fleur, and Felene)
Manang Tere is our second respondent and just like Manang Lynette, she had just finished washing the clothes when we went in their house for the interview.

5. Appendix
Appendix A: List of questions in Kiniray-a Version
1. Pila ang inyong bata? Ano ang mga pangaran? Ano ang ubra mo at ana it tang imong asawa? Ano ang ana pangaran? Sin- o ang gaubra sa siyudad? Pira ang lalaki nga ga-ubra? Pira ang babayi? Ano ang anda nga edad? Pira ka-tuig sanda ga-ubra sa city?
2. Maliban sa inyo nga ubra? Ano pa ang mga pamaagi para madugangan ang kita it pamilya?
3. Ano ang ubra tang imong bata sa siyudad? Diin bay sanda ga-istar didto? Maliban sa muwran nga city, naka-ubra sanda sa iba nga siyudad? Kung may dyan ano ang pangaran? Diin sanda ga-istar kung sa siyudad sanda? May imaw man sanda nga kaparyentehan?
4. Man-an ninyo ang kita tang imo nga bata sa isa ka- bulan? San- o sanda magpadara? Pira by ang andang ginapadara sa inyo sa isa ka bulan o kung san-o man sanda magpadara? Paano ninyo ginagasto sa inyong panimalay ang kwarta nga ginapadara?
5. San-o sanda ga-uli uli by? Kung may okasyon? Ano by nga mga okasyon? Ginabisita nyo man sanda sa siyudad? Kung san-o by? Ano gid ang rason nga gabisita kamo didto? May ginapadara man kamo para sa inyong mga bata? Mga ano bay? Kung magabisita man kamo sa anda, pira kamo ka- adlaw gadayon didto? Kung magbalik kamo sa baryo may ginapadara man ang bata ninyo? Mga ano bay?
6. Gusto nyo man nga ga-ubra sanda didto? Manhaw? Manhaw indi?
7. Gusto nyo man maging permanente sanda dugto nga mag-uli? Manhaw? Manhaw indi?
8. May plano kamo nga imawan ang inyo nga bata didto run lang mag-uli man imaw sanda? Manhaw? Manhaw indi?