Peeling garlic is helping some Tondo residents survive the COVID-19 lockdown

Some get to cook dishes without even getting garlicky hands because of the labor of garlic peelers like Cherylyn Lacosta and other women of Parola in Tondo, Manila.

Manual peeling like what Lacosta does  -- using small cutter blades -- is painful on the hands, and the pay is small -- P70 pesos for every 14 kilos of peeled garlic -- but it's the only source of income that she can have as jobs are hard to come by in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Masakit. Nakakasugat ng kamay, eh. Kasi cutter ang gamit namin. Tapos buo, hahatiin pa namin, tapos babalatan isa-isa," Lacosta said in Chino Gaston's report on "24 Oras."

"Pang araw-araw din. Nakakatulong rin naman po," she added.

Lacosta said her husband has not been able to work, and thus, have no income, for the last two months since the lockdown. —Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News