The Philippine Situation today - 2012 (SA KAMBAS NG LIPUNAN)

COURTESY OF chardgrimaldo.blogspot.com
FROM HIS MOVIE KAMBAS NG LIPUNAN

After all the criticisms thrown at Filipinos, many by Filipinos themselves, it seems crazy not to accept that we are facing and dealing a lot of problems -- and major ones. Maybe the words "poverty" and "corruption" have become so ordinary because of its constant use. It had been around too long, too massively, they seem to be the standard feature of the Philippine Society.

The reality of poverty and corruption though, is far from the real situation happening in routine. It is felt of pain, the poverty side, and felt of greed, the corruption component. Hunger incidence accompanies poverty, enough to affect as much as fifteen to twenty million poor Filipinos at any one time and hunger may be the most pressing problems among the poor but not necessarily the most painful. It can only be wondered what it is to go home at night to a place that may not be available anymore, to live temporarily as squatters anywhere and everywhere simply because no one has no right to be anywhere in his or her own motherland.

The patrimony of Filipinos should be abundant because there is abundance beyond imagination is a land so clearly blessed by creation. Yet, for tons of millions, the patrimony is in horrible fear and suffering -- and the loss of human dignity when forced to survive under animalistic conditions. Poor families survive by lowering the bar of their humanity, by resigning to a life without hope, and by accepting that they are truly less equal than others.

FILIPINO CHILDREN FALLING IN LINE
HOLDING THEIR PLATES
CRAVING FOR SOME FOOD
BECAUSE OF HUNGER

To understand the severe imbalance of the rich, the not as rich, the poor, and the poorest of the poor, then one must contend with the power of greed. In a society where greed dominates, and only when greed dominates can massive poverty exist in a naturally blessed land, the poor have no chance because no one challenges the system. Can it be that the presence of very poor Filipinos make those who are less poor believe that their fate is so bearable, or favorable, compared to the misery of the poorest? Greed complimented by apathy or cowardice, can indefinitely extend the poverty of the majority. After all, the poor are weak even if they have the superiority of numbers.

The backdrop of corruption implicates that power has been used to enrich those wielding it. Worse, it epitomizes the elite and the hierarchy of major institutions, state and church have not been honest enough from abusing their positions and authority. It means that the value systems of leaders in Philippine society have been for themselves and not the Filipino people whom they swore to serve and protect.

How then, can change happen? There has to be pain, sustained and extended pain, until enough are determined not to accept it anymore.