The making of a leader

Los Angeles-based Perla B. Santos sent a video on July 31 showing Filipino nurses being admired in the United States.

A day later, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Japanese Embassy held a jobs fair at Robinson’s Galleria Ortigas to celebrate Philippine-Japan Friendship Week.

One of the applicants, a former male OFW (overseas Filipino worker) applying for a job in the health sector, said Filipino nurses were appreciated in the Middle East.

Department of Migrant Workers (ad interim) Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac expressed his best wishes to the applicants while Undersecretary Patricia Yvonne Caunan said the jobs fair ensured access to legitimate agencies and prevented scams. 

The two events happened almost simultaneously by sheer coincidence. The DMW held a jobs fair called “Konnichiwa Pilipinas! Kumusta Japan!” to provide jobs to OFWs in construction and the health sector, among others.

It was not Santos’ duty to promote Filipino nurses. She is a patient and community liaison and health educator for a federally-funded primary care clinic in Los Angeles, California.

 Her gesture attested to her being a Filipino, although she had become a US citizen, but also her leadership qualities.

She does not proclaim who she is or what she is involved in. Her actions speak for themselves. She makes one feel her altruism, concern for others, goodwill, teamwork, and patriotism. She wants to spread her message to inspire and motivate her kababayan or compatriots.

These and more make her effective in cobbling together a volunteer group to carry out a project for a common cause.

During the pandemic, her group, the MoTHER Movement, collected foods donated by city supermarkets and distributed them to Filipinos in need.

Perla has helped many people—Filipinos and foreigners alike— and they are in the hundreds. One of them was retired journalist Rosa “Jing” S. Ocampo, who was in the US. 

 “She visited a relative, whose son, Rommel Rint, was my colleague at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) in the 1990s,” she said.

Ocampo stayed with Perla for about a week in her Los Angeles flat.

 “She also interviewed a good friend who was a disability rights activist. If my memory serves me right, the interview was published in Riyadh Daily and the article was one of the documents that supported the Presidential “Banaag” Award, in 2012,” she said.

When Rosa was in Peru and later El Salvador, as a missionary, she went to the US but stayed with a relative in the (San Fernando) Valley.

“I traveled all the way to the Valley just to meet her. It’s quite far from where I was staying. I spent one whole day for the visit,” Perla said.

While still working in the Saudi capital, Perla led a group that reached out to her distressed kababayan sheltering at the Bahay Kalinga of the Migrant Center. The group discussed community projects like feeding programs, medical missions, livelihood training and self protection awareness, among others.

At an age when she should have slowed down and enjoyed life in retirement, Perla keeps working and remains involved in community activities.

“I can’t explain what motivates me to continue doing what I have been doing since I left the Philippines in the 1990s to work overseas,” she said.

As the Chief Executive Officer/Chair of the non-government organization International MoTHER Movement, simply called MoTHER, she has made a difference in the lives of others.

MoTHER stands for Movement to Help Eradicate Rape and other forms of violence against Women.

Without probably realizing it, she was born a leader though she did not show it during her growing-up years due to circumstances beyond her control.

Her Grade 2 teacher would make her a teacher’s aide in the barrio school in Santa Ines, Santa Ignacia, Tarlac. But her mother, who was also a teacher, wanted her children to attend the provincial central school.  However, being a transferee, she was not as active as she should have been academically, though she managed to stay in Section 1, the cream of the crop, until Grade 6.

In high school, she was transferred to Manila and enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas High School and she had to learn to adjust to city life. She was also homesick, being away from her parents and siblings

“But in Second Year High, I was the captain of our volleyball team, participating in inter-section competitions,” she said. “I believe sports gave me the opportunity to overcome my feelings of loneliness.”

As a college freshman, she was elected an officer, including president in every subject or class.  Her teachers would ask her to help check quizzes and test papers, including essays. That gave her the drive to work harder in her studies. 

However, her father suffered a nearly fatal accident. A landowner, he was physically attacked by a disgruntled tenant. Life became hard for the whole family.

Perla, the second eldest, and her sister, Nora Maria, took care of their younger siblings.

“While our mother, a teacher, took care of our father in the hospital for more than a year because he was traumatized physically, emotionally and mentally and was not able to take care of himself anymore, my sister and I worked while studying,” she said.

She became a student assistant at the Public Relations office of her college.

“I guess my exposure to Public Relations in my college was key to what I became,” she said.

At past retirement age, when most seniors have lost their idealism and youthful energy, Perla – still full of verve and vigor – continues to be active in her career. She is enthusiastically involved in her community and, with passion and vision, dreams of things that can make a difference in the life of others and to make the world a better place for the next generation.