Life of the lonely jaguar

Rhona Canoy

SO… One night, for lack of anything to do, I decided to strike up a conversation with our night guard. He has become a regular fixture at our home ever since we got visited informally a few times. Many of us who contract the services of these individuals (myself included) really don’t know anything about them. So here goes.

It shames me to admit how invisible these people are to us until we need them to open the door to the bank or business, or to open our gates when we honk our car horns. We cursorily glance and wave a languid hand or distractedly nod our heads to acknowledge their existence. And that’s about it. They come to us through security agencies, which is also where we send our payment for their services. End of transaction.

You have no idea how horrified I was to discover that there seems to be a common standard of operation for these agencies. I have terminated previous contracts because of my dissatisfaction with management, but in my efforts to give due respect to these men and women, I have to come to terms with how arrogantly we regard them.

These are the people who we expect to give up their lives to protect ours and our property. Without question. We expect them to be watchful and prevent intruders from entering our domain. That’s a lot of responsibility. Yet we are the selfsame people who complain that their service rates are too high, so we look for cheaper agencies so as to protect our budgets. Isn’t this a reflection of what we think their lives are worth?

To make things worse, their agencies are unkind to them. The things I discovered are appalling. A large portion of the service fee paid to the agencies is claimed by the agencies. Understandably, this is meant to pay for operational expenses such as salaries for their office workers, arms and munitions, and surely profit for the owners. It is a business after all. But hey wow!!

Let’s make this concrete. My guy costs me P9,000 a month, paid to the agency. Of this, 2,000 is kept by the employer. Which leaves 7,000. This is below minimum wage. From this, 100 pesos is deducted as cash bond. This part I’m still trying to figure out. Which leaves P6,900 a month. To support family and any other expenses that may arise. If there is delay in releasing salaries, he is given a cash advance to tide him over till the salary is paid out. But this advance comes with a hefty interest rate. Wait, what?! Isn’t it the job of the agency to pay their personnel promptly? So now I’m wondering if there are other mandatory deductions. All this in the face of no SSS, no Pag-ibig, no Philhealth.

Now I’m really in the pits of guilt hell for bargaining down my security budget. After all, if my friendly neighborhood uninvited shopper comes around again, I expect my night jaguar to be at the front line, to face the possibly armed man and prevent him from doing me and my family any harm. With a rusty malfunctioning revolver (yes, we tested it) and the regulation issue of two—yes, 2… dos… ni… duha…–bullets which he has to pay to get replacements for if he should use them. How many of you know this much about your guard?

My guy is 63 years old. My age. He has been with this agency for at least 25 years. He has no retirement pay to look forward to, nothing he can collect from SSS, no Philhealth for him and his family if he gets sick in hospital, and unable to apply for a housing loan from Pag-ibig. He has one daughter. Who just gave birth to his first and only grandchild. Who depends on him because her boyfriend ran away after discovering her pregnancy. So his wife sells snacks outside the public school gates near his house to augment his income. That is really sad. But he is honest, dedicated, and has a good work ethic. To add insult to injury, his agency doesn’t even have him listed as an employee by name. He is simply and anonymously known as guard no. …I’m not even sure how he’s listed.

So I make sure he has a big thermos of hot water and lots of coffee sachets every night. And a midnight snack. And transportation allowance because it takes him four rides to get to our house from where he lives. My dad likes him. It gives him peace of mind to hear jaguar watering mom’s plants at two in the morning, knowing he is not the only one awake at an ungodly hour. So he has become irreplaceable.

And while I continue to try to improve his situation, I live with my guilt and hope he never has to lay his life on the line for me.