Born in the Philippines, raised in Australia, most of my relatives still resides in the Philippines and occasionally, I do take a short vacation back to hometown to visit my beloved grandpa and the many relatives that I have there.
However, grandpa passed away recently. The funeral was a simple affair. As they live in province, the wake was held in grandpa's house for 5 days. During the 5 days, almost all of his descendants came to pay respect to grandpa despite some of them lived far away in another city due to work demand. Having spoke to some of them, it makes me wonder about the bereavement leave in the Philippines. I came to realize that though Filipinos have deep love and respect for their family and friends, the country does not have any regulations in regards to the employees paying their last respect to the dead. According to the information on this website on bereavement leave DOLE, it is part of the employer's prerogative to grant such leave benefits to their employees. In my opinion, that only meant that some companies who are not compassionate enough like those of my cousins, took advantage of this loophole in the Labor Code of Philippines, to deprive them of such benefit. So they don't have a choice but to utilize their vacation leave to come back. I believe that's the strength of family love, regardless of all odds, we make it a point to show our love to our beloved grandpa. During this bereavement period, especially during the long walk to the burial, many of us shed tears as all those beautiful memories that he created floated up our minds. The words that he said, the things that he did, and all of his expressions. I can still remember them vividly. The moment of his burial, I just want to look into his eyes again and tell him how much I love him. I hope he found peace. I love you grandpa, be happy in heaven. - from your cute little lore Comments are closed.
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AuthorMy name is Lorette and I am just a simple girl who talks about anything that I like. Archives
January 2017
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