Flight attendant who risks losing job amid pandemic turns to selling fruits

Flights may be suspended for this flight attendant but her online fruit-selling business has taken off. 

According to Tina Panganiban-Perez’s “24 Oras” report on Friday, Em Enrique had to stop boarding flights since March as the airline industry took a hit from the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’ve been doing this for 5 years already, so sobrang nawala yung identity ko noong nawala ’yung lipad eh. Sobrang na-detach ako sa reality ko,” said Em.

She was well-compensated as a flight attendant. However, she needed to use whatever savings she had left when her mother recently went through a thyroid surgery.

Em said she also received advise that they had no flights until October, which added to her worries.

“So what will I do sa next two months? Nagkaroon ng anxiety kasi we are not sure kung may babalikan kaming work. Well until now we’re not sure,” she said.

Instead of dwelling on the issue, Em decided to get back up and keep herself busy by starting her own business.

“I took it as an opportunity to rest pero sabi ko I have to do something to preserve my mental health. I have to keep myself busy,” she said.

She decided to focus on selling fruits via Facebook, “especially avocadoes since medyo mataas ’yung demand nya, since once a year lang ’yung season nya.”

According to Em, she sells around 80-100 kg of avocados in 2 days.

The earnings may be lower than what she is getting as a flight attendant, but what’s important to her is that the family has a source of income and they are healthy.

“Hindi lang tayo mage-end doon sa regular job natin, we can stretch our potential, we can push ourselves,” said Em.

“’Yung hindi natin alam na kaya pala natin gawin, magagawa natin dahil sa pandemic na ito. So take that as an opportunity to improve ourselves.” – RC, GMA News