Just to escape from her employer’s abuses, Joyce and her co-worker jumped from a 15-meter-high water tank, landing on the roof of their neighbor’s house. Joyce had to muster all of her courage to brave such an escape – the same feeling she had experienced when she had tried to jump out of poverty by leaving home at age 16.

Born out of wedlock, Joyce never saw her father, nor did she know how it felt to grow up with a mother. Her mother chose to start a new family in Zamboanga del Norte, so it was Joyce’s maternal grandmother who had raised her since birth.

Joyce’s grandmother owned a small sari-sari store which Joyce helped tend during weekends. Soon, she would tend the store by herself even on schooldays because her grandmother could no longer work. Joyce was in her second year of high school at the time and the income from the store supported her and her grandmother. But her uncles, who were living with them in the same house, were hard on her, often calling her shameful names for every minor mistake that she made.

Wanting to break out of her situation, Joyce decided to work for a distant aunt in Dipolog. She would care for her little cousins in return for free board and lodging and being treated as a family member. But alas, a man in the neighborhood tried to rape her one night. Joyce fought back and escaped harm. From then on, however, she feared that he would try again to force himself upon her. So she decided to leave her aunt’s house just to get out of harm’s way.

It was clear to Joyce that she had to continue working to sustain her regular remittance to her grandmother. Without telling anyone, she therefore looked for another household to work for in Dipolog. She met a certain Lucia who offered her an easy job in Manila. But one of the conditions she imposed was that Joyce should lie about her age.

Joyce was interviewed by an alleged lawyer of the recruitment agency that Lucia worked for. The agency took her in but she didn’t leave for Manila right away because other recruits were expected to join the trip. While waiting, Joyce took time to visit her grandmother and tell her about her plans. Her grandmother gave her approval and even advised Joyce to be obedient to her future employers. Joyce later asked Lucia for a P500 advance which she left to her grandmother.

Eight days later, Joyce and eight other girls boarded a ship bound for Manila. Lucia’s husband accompanied them during the journey. Arriving at the Manila harbor, the group was met and picked up by some agency staff.

Joyce and another girl, Jane, were told that they would work somewhere in Valenzuela. Their employer fetched both girls from the agency. Neither of them was offered a contract nor informed of how much salary they would receive.

The girls would work from 4 a.m. until far past midnight. To this day, Joyce can still taste the sourness of the stale sandwiches they were forced to eat every day; to ease her hunger, however, she would eagerly take a quick bite of her sandwich whenever she got the chance. After all, the girls weren’t fed any breakfast and were only allowed to rest and eat twice a day, at 1 pm for lunch and at 9 pm for dinner.

Joyce also didn’t understand why her employer would always pepper her with curses and insults. Although she withstood hearing these vicious words, however, her body couldn’t stand the physical abuse. Not a day went by that she wasn’t physically harmed or cursed.

Joyce did not feel able to complain to her employer, and no one else could hear her cry. She was forced into silent submission. Yet in her silence, she plotted her escape, although she didn’t really know how.

Finally, Joyce and Jane made a daredevil escape. Both climbed up to the top of their employer’s water tank, closed their eyes, and jumped onto their neighbor’s roof. “Nilakasan ko na lang loob ko para makaalis lang sa bahay ng amo ko,” Joyce remembers. (“I summoned all of my courage just to get out of my employer’s house.”)

Their surprised neighbor immediately called the hotline of Bantay Bata 163. It took a while before the abusive employer discovered the two girls’ escape, but when she learned where they had fled, she offered her neighbor money to get the girls back. The man refused the offer and did not budge until the Visayan Forum social workers came to fetch the girls.

While Joyce and Jane were recounting their ordeal at the police station, the recruitment agency’s representative came by to re-claim them. But upon the police’s closer scrutiny of the girls’ doctored birth certificates, the two minors were released to the custody of the social workers.

After spending some time at the VF safe house, Joyce eventually decided not to pursue a case against her employer and agency. She wanted to go back home to care for her grandmother and perhaps return to school.

Today, Joyce is participating in alternative skills training with the help of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office of Dipolog.