Last week, I traveled to Manila with my children Lugat and Gawani foremost for medical reasons (which are why I went on leave from SRT, aside from the fact that my internet connection went crazy).
We got off the bus at the Victory Liner station in Cubao. By then, it was past 8:00 PM. As we were looking for my husband's car, Lugat noticed a man and a girl of about two or three years sleeping on the sidewalk. Their mat was a cardboard. Lugat, a relatively sheltered child, asked me, "Why are they sleeping there?" I said, "They have nowhere else to sleep." Staring at me with a dumfounded look, he was speechless for a few seconds and then he said, "This world is so unfair."
Lugat's response elated me because it meant that this early, he has a social conscience. I hope he will never lose it.
The sight of a baby sleeping under squalid circumstances is not new. And yet, everytime we see one, we get so affected. Why can't the babies be spared?
"Suffer the children to come unto Me," Jesus said with determination when His disciples were acting as a cordon sanitaire to prevent the children from getting near Him. Children must be very special to God. What are we doing letting them go homeless and hungry? Our government's budget for social services is so low that I am sure there will be more of the innocent sleeping on the streets this year. And to think that it is spending more than P300 billions yearly to pay for the Marcos years' debts which did not benefit the people. The debt is so huge that even the unborn Filipino children will have to pay.
I am reminded of a poem I wrote when I was so depressed thinking of how poverty has stolen our children's childhood. That time, I just got an email about children scavengers who had to go through piles of garbage to survive.
Elegy to Poverty
Did you see the five-year old boy rummage thru
trash cans for garbage his family could feast on?
Do you behold that pre-school girl peddling
white flowers amidst hurtling cars on perilous
streets as she piously hopes for family supper?
Are you smacked by shame that while the few
snorkel in the lake of prosperity, the multitude
is sinking in the ocean of your wretchedness,
with them babies who know not how to swim?
Oh, Poverty, you are the ruthless scourge that
abbreviates Infancy and impounds Innocence.
Be banished; hide as a skeleton in the cupboard
The time is too soon for the infants to know you
Suffer them to slurp milk from generous cups
Permit them to frolic around with their toy cars
Let them dress up their chubby baby dolls
Pilfer not their mirth and smell of Innocence
Inoculate them from the vile reek of your curse
Let Life be their gift; let it not be their burden!
Let them embrace Faith, not yet Despondence.
Free them to have memories of Beauty and Virtue
for when Innocence fades away and they meet you.
God bless the children.
6 comments:
Manang Chyt, I wasn't aware that the social services budget was so low due to the debts from the Marcos era. Did the Marcoses not pay any of it back? I thought they had a Swiss bank account. Was that account untouchable? Perhaps whoever the Philippines owes the money to can forgive the debt just like many countries forgave Africa's debts because of singer Bono's campaigning.
Wil, you may not believe it but the current Philippine budget for health service is P0.44/person. You cannot even buy a band-aid, much more a Biogesic tablet for common headache with 44 cents. How much is the budget for debt services? It is 33% of P990B which was the 2005 Philippine budget and remains to be the budget for 2007 unless Congress enacts a new appropriation law. The more than P350B slashed from the budget is for the payment of interests on debts (mostly foreign from the World Bank-IMF.).
Speaking of the Marcoses, they are getting away scot-free under the current justice system. Lately, Imelda Marcos was acquitted on 7 counts of tax evasion. The Philippine government has not successfully run after all the Marcos accounts.
Will you please ask Bono and U2 to launch a crusade for the Filipino masses and do what the government should be doing? I am sure that the government can opt for selective repudiation (pay those that benefited the people; do not pay the private debts of Marcos cronies guaranteed by Marcos as Phil. prexy, or the so-called behest loans) as Argentina courageouslydid. This Latin-Am unilaterally repudiated its WB-IMF debts. The First World warned it of economic sanctions. Now, Argentina might as well tell them to eat their words. It is on the road to economic advancement and is about to reach the finish line.
The Philippines does not want to repudiate. That is the sad thing. The officials are afraid of economic sanctions which, in their assessment, will be more detrimental to the Philippines.
Wil, oh my ading Wil, it will be a miracle if the WB-IMF will condone just like that. They know that they hold our officials by the neck. But if the twin international financial institutions are attacked with Philippine political will insisting on debt repudiation, I am sure the Philippines will be another Argentina.
BTW, concerned sectors in the Philippines remain active in their campaigns for debt repudiation.
It is true that in the Philippines, especially in Manila, there are so many streetchildren. It is a pity to see them sleep anywhere. Do this children have parents? How irresponsible parents must be to expose their children to the elements (natural and human beings who are predators) like that. It is depressing to travel to Manila. Why is that the case when Manila is near Malacanang? Is Malacanang blind?
Your children's exposure to society's (maybe govt)faults and ills will undoubtedly make them more appreciative of who they are and what they have. To me, good environment, great upbringing are keys to being a descent person.
Nice SRT is back and humming again.
Goodhealth and cheers to you and to all your readers/followers as well......
One of the crazy things that MMDA's Bayani Fernando did in Metro Manila is to remove the roofs in overpasses thus denying homeless people some form of shelter. It is a very unChristian act and he did it out of spite.
P.S. Welcome back. Good to know that you are doing okay :-)
Hi.I am glad to be welcomed back.
Trublue, you are right about children's upbringing. Parents should make an effort to acquaint their children with the ugly picture. Maybe, it will make the children appreciate what they have, which may insulate them from grief.
Bill, Fernando? Did my blood pressure just rise?
Thanks for visiting again.
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