During the 1970's, in response to the poor living conditions of Filipino Muslims, the Libyan government bought a patch of land in Culiat, Quezon City, the Philippines as a donation (wakaf). It was intended to serve as a sanctuary for landless and homeless Filipino Muslims.
The result was the Salam Compound, a walled-off neighborhood of transplanted Filipino Muslim tribes that lies adjacent to the affluent and highly influential church, Iglesia ni Cristo. The impoverished and fugitive community has existed in a deep state of disrepair and exclusion for years.
Ultimately, the compound serves a transit point for Muslim migrants from the embattled island of Mindanao. Hoping to escape a life of rural poverty and armed conflict, many of the current and temporary residents have come to the compound seeking training for more lucrative employment overseas. These decisions to migrate to the capital city and later to work overseas come at a great risk of personal safety and upheaval of the family unit.
In 2011 around the 25th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution, I documented daily life at the compound as well as conducting over 20 hours of interviews with several women and their families. Their oral histories detail their traumatic personal lives and fraught employment as domestic workers, which took them from Mindanao to the Middle East and back to Metro Manila.This access was facilitated by Migrante International, a global alliance of grassroots migrant organizations assisting overseas Filipinos and their families.
"Thanks to the Bearer" interweaves the experiences of those who have just returned to the Philippines, those who await in limbo for their departure, and those who call the compound a home.
The narrative is framed around excerpts from the diary of Nerissa Neri, a Filipino domestic worker who was raped, unjustly jailed and punished with 150 lashes while working overseas. She was not from the Salam Compound, but her experience is commensurate with a number of stories that I came across in my interviews.Also included are letters by her fellow prisoners to give to family members in the Philippines upon her release and return home. The title is taken from an inscription from one of the prisoner’s letters.
Lastly, a collage of photographs taken by Salam Compound community members themselves is included as the literal centerpiece of the narrative. The collage is the result of asking community members to photograph what they valued in the Salam Compound and what they felt should be improved.
Although considerable time has passed, I believe the realities presented exist even more starkly today transnationally.
