Monday, March 27, 2006

Stampede shows how desperately poor Pinoys are

As I See It : Stampede shows how desperately poor Pinoys are First
posted
11:34pm (Mla time)
Feb 05, 2006 By Neal H. Cruz
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 6, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE STAMPEDE AT ULTRA, WHERE AT LEAST 74 people died and about 400 others were injured should be an eye-opener for our government officials, especially the President. It is an indication of the extent of poverty in our country. The poor people who flocked to Ultra went there hoping to win a small part of the P1.6 million in cash-not to mention the house and lot, and the car-reportedly set aside to be raffled off during the anniversary show of "Wowowee," ABS-CBN's noontime program.

To the poverty-stricken, such tempting prizes are worth dying for. To many of them, the program is the only way to get hold of some money that, perhaps, could finally set them free from the clutches of poverty.

The horde of poor people started arriving at Ultra, packing its grounds, on Monday. Some of them came from faraway provinces and had money only for one-way fare. They thought they could pay their way back home with what they would win in the raffle. That was how confident, or hopeful, theywere.

Many of our officials only pay lip service to poverty eradication. They don't really do something meaningful to achieve that. Others don't believe that poverty is that serious. Now they should know better.

President Macapagal-Arroyo has made a show of visiting the victims in the hospitals and expressing her condolences. She has ordered an investigation and there would surely be some scapegoats afterwards. But those are not enough. She has to do something drastic to ease poverty so that people don't have to die in search of some relief. After all, as some critics say, poverty got this bad during her administration. If we can be honest about it, the blame falls on the policymakers and economic planners in MalacaƱang who have let the people go this desperately poor.

If the desperately poor people of the Philippines were not so appallingly numerous, not that many would have flocked to Ultra hoping to win some money. And they wouldn't have stampeded in the race to get in and get tickets for the raffle. And nobody would have died.
Perhaps, the mass deaths should shock the administration into doing something meaningful. Distributing free noodles to the poor while cameras click away, delivering speeches, shaking hands and promising billions of pesos for food handouts to try to regain some popularity, are not what we mean by "something meaningful."

The people need jobs, not handouts. They prefer to work for their food. So give them jobs, not handouts, and they would be more grateful. Handouts fill hungry stomachs temporarily, but they strip people of their self-respect. Handouts introduce people to a culture of mendicancy. In time, people would get so used to them, they would rather beg than work for a living.

But alas, this administration knows only one policy: bribery. It is spending many billions of pesos to bribe the military, the police, government employees, local government officials, congressmen, the poor-anybody who can help the President stay in MalacaƱang where she shouldn't be. None or very little is set aside to generate jobs.

Whom to blame? the people, media, or the president?

1 Comments:

Blogger beau said...

kaya nga...walang nakekealam!he he he

Saturday, April 01, 2006 2:45:00 PM  

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