These employees still on duty on Christmas Day

NAGA CITY—Around 10 in the evening, two hours before the clock chimed to herald Christmas Day, customer-care specialist Sharen-Jose Ramelo Delovieres was preparing for another long stretch of answering calls from Canada.

Delovieres, 26, works at International Business Machines (IBM) in Naga City and was among those who spent Christmas Eve on duty while most Filipinos were at home sharing the noche buena with their families at the stroke of midnight.

Armed with her resolve to welcome calls from customers halfway around the world from the Philippines, she brought with her a refrigerated cake that she was contributing to the simple meal that she and her fellow call center workers were going to share in lieu of the traditional Filipino Christmas meal with their respective families.

“I hope for lesser calls now because it’s Christmas,” she said.

Delovieres said she entertains from 30 to 50 calls from Canada every eight-hour shift that starts at 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day.

“But, I also know there would be calls from irate clients because of delayed orders. It’s snowing out there,” she said.

In Albay, Captain Divar Crisostomo, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 901st Infantry Brigade under 9th Infantry Division, was on alert since the evening of Dec. 24 until daybreak of Dec. 25, Christmas Day, at their camp in Barangay Villahermosa, Daraga town.

It was his ninth year celebrating Christmas with fellow soldiers, he said.

“We are more vigilant during this season in view of the SOMO (suspension of offensive military operations or ceasefire with communist rebels),” he said.

He said many soldiers like him deemed it both an honor and worthy sacrifice to be on watch on Christmas Eve.

He added they were most alert as midnight approached when revelers would start using firecrackers because some violators of the SOMO, referring to rebel elements, might take advantage of the situation, increasing the chance of a clash during Christmas.

A simple meal with all the soldiers on duty, some of whom have their families living within the camp in Daraga, Albay, was prepared for Christmas Eve, he said.

Captain Mardjorie Panesa, public information officer of 9ID based in Pili, Camarines Sur, said soldiers who were on duty on Christmas Eve counted themselves lucky if nearby residents would come to offer them food while manning their posts.

She said residents in surrounding communities would sometimes bring their own Christmas fare to share with the soldiers.

Sometimes, other military officials and even enlisted soldiers not on duty would go to the camp with food to share with officers and soldiers on duty, she added.

Camarines Norte-based broadcaster Arjay Urbana also spent his noche buena at work with his fellow radio journalists on standby for news updates.

Urbana said it was not easy being away from the family for noche buena but he said he would find it harder to be away from home on media noche, or the midnight New Year’s meal, as he would anchor the countdown to welcome 2014 while his family, relatives and friends would be enjoying the revelry to welcome the New Year.