Brides and young prostitutes

Commentary

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:39:00 02/17/2011

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WE WERE looking toward the backdoor of the chapel for the bride’s appearance, when suddenly the door flew open, blown in by the strong Batangas winds, and there stood the bride. Her white veil and bridal dress blew wildly about her. She was the very image of beauty, passion, mystery and the sacred.

The bride, Dianna Calderon, and Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman’s son, Dino, got married in a loving, tasteful ceremony that had the row of bridesmaids sitting in front of us in tears, and the older men and women nodding as if to say, “Yes, this is the way it should be.”

It happens often in the Philippines that soon after you see something inspiring, you see or hear of something degrading of human beings, often of children. The same afternoon of the wedding, we heard of the 12- and 13-year-old prostitutes of Tondo whose lives are in sharp contrast with that of the bride. The girls are scavengers during the day, and at night they are prostitutes for the truck drivers, half-drunk istambays, garbage workers and the other rootless men who hang around the piers. The charge is P20 to P50 to feel the girl’s breasts and private parts (pakalog), while sex is P300 (palong-palo), often in a garbage truck. The girls have three men a night for sex on average, but some nights there are long lines. “I just lay there,” one girl said of her experience. The whole transaction is so crude, you can feel sorry even for the guys.

This Tondo situation was first reported on last week’s “Reporter’s Notebook” on GMA-7.

There is much beauty and goodness in the country, but also much cruelty. Sometimes we see the same troubling sight day after day. At the Anonas Station of the LRT a very young girl, 3 years old perhaps, often sits and begs. As best we can tell, people bring her there in the afternoon, coax a sad smile onto her face, put a tin cup in her hand and leave her. They come late in the evening to get her when the rush hour is over. For hours she sits there while people hurry past. Some drop a coin in her cup, but she doesn’t seem to notice. Other small children pass by holding their mothers’ hands. Babies pass in their mother’s arms. All the children look down on the little girl, wondering why she has no mama. It’s hard to get the little girl’s fear and loneliness out of one’s mind.

It is impossible for anyone who travels through the city to miss children pushing scavengers’ kareton or begging late into the night, or stretched out on the hot sidewalk worn out by life.

It should be very difficult to plunder in this country when there is evidence everywhere that plunder is food, medicine and housing taken from poor children. It’s easier to plunder, as Madoff did in Miami among his wealthy friends. Corruption in poor countries is brazen disregard of God’s poor children.

It is hard to determine who is guilty. The children are not guilty, neither are their parents really guilty once we know their poverty. Even the pimps may not be fully guilty, because they probably grew up in similar circumstances as the children.

The powerful are guilty, and who else? In the Old Testament the prophets singled out kings and rich men and women for special criticism, but in the end the Lord punished the whole people, nobles and servants, priests and people, rich and poor. Theologians tell us that in the New Testament we are saved or not as a whole people and not as individuals. It isn’t just rhetoric to say we are all guilty for the abuses done to children.

While many people abuse the young and vulnerable, there are others who give their lives for them. One such person is Sr. Felicitas de Lima of Iriga, Camarines Sur, who is no longer able to climb Mt. Iriga to bring literacy programs and agriculture coops to the Negritos high up on the mountain. She is well into her 70s now, but she still runs an orphanage for 120 children (real orphans, abandoned children, troubled children and those children whose parents, both lowlanders and Negritos, can no longer afford to raise them). She begs for money, feeds the children (now her orphanage is nearly 80 percent self-sufficient in food), educates them (she has built an accredited elementary school with regular teachers and sends the children to high school and even college). She gives each child a marketable skill and real, tangible love. She knows all their names, their backgrounds, special problems and their hopes in life.

People like Sister Felicitas lessen the guilt that may otherwise fall on us for our failure to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters. She needs many more pulling with her, however.

* * *

Before young people appropriate the success of the struggle of the Egyptian people to themselves and to the Internet, Facebook and Twitter, we should point out that when it came to actually fighting for the future of the revolution against the police forces in Tahrir Square, men in their 40s, 50s and even 60s, men with prominent stomachs and gray hair, were right in the middle of the struggle punching away and being punched.

Look after the land

By Denis Murphy Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: January 28, 2011

A RECENT story in the newspapers said that the government plans to sell Camps Crame and Aguinaldo. There were few follow-up stories, letters to the editor or editorials, despite the fact that the sale of the 212 hectares in the heart of Metro Manila will have tremendous direct impact on the lives of thousands of people, determining where they live and work, and indirectly affect nearly all the people of the metropolis to a greater or lesser degree. The importance of the sale can be grasped by its estimated sale price of about P200 billion at a conservative P10,000 per square meter. Some people say the price could be as high as P30,000 per square meter or a total of more than P5 trillion. Few of us have a real understanding of such a figure, any more than we do light years and black holes in space. Wise use of the land will benefit generations. The Luneta is a good example of wise use. Half a million people spent Christmas and New Year’s Day there, the media reported. On the other hand, the proposed use of 400 or so hectares of the reclaimed land in Manila Bay fronting Pasay and Pasig for gambling casinos intended to rival the giant gambling centers of Macau and Las Vegas is a dubious use of land. Does Philippine society want gambling on such a scale? Equally important, aren’t there better uses for the land? Small groups of people decide what will happen to the country’s disposable land. The transactions are not very transparent. It’s likely the public won’t hear any more about the camp sale until it is already finalized. The point here is not that there is something suspect going on, but rather that the matter is so important that the public ought to have a say in who gets the land and what uses are made of it. What do people want the land to be used for? Do they want another Trinoma, Ortigas Center, Eastwood or Fort Bonifacio Global City? Do they want another Luneta, Quezon City Memorial Circle Park, or EcoPark? Do they want the land used to house the poor? Do they want a mixed housing development where people of different economic levels will live? Do they want a giant upscale entertainment area with casinos, hotels, spas, etc? Do they want the land to have playing fields where the country’s future soccer champions, boys and girls, can develop? Should the land be used for light industry, cottage industries, cooperatives or job training? Should it be a park with thousands of trees to promote clean air for all? Should it have memorials for the heroic deeds done there in the past? I found in discussing the uses of the camp land that people often have a clearer idea of what they don’t want than of what they want. For example, they don’t want uses that will make traffic worse. Many don’t want more malls. They claim we don’t need more, that we have already more malls than any city needs. Poor people want something they can use, such as the Luneta. They don’t want the land to be reserved for the use of tourists and rich people. Playing fields, libraries, museums, gardens and art centers can change boys or girls’ lives. Maybe these uses should be the priority. It might make good sense for the government, before it sells the camps or the reclaimed land, to ask to what degree the sale of Fort Bonifacio, Camp John Hay, and Clark Field have benefited the whole country. Have the sales invigorated Metro Manila, Baguio and Central Luzon, or have special interests largely benefited? Can the sale be done in a more transparent way? Can there be public hearings and presentation of alternative uses for the land? Is there some way the people’s preferences can be accurately calculated and serve as guidelines for our decision makers? Land once sold is gone for good. Three years ago the urban poor had their annual “Kalbaryo” on the reclaimed land in Manila Bay. They made the Stations of the Cross near the Mall of Asia. They wanted to point out to the public that while thousands of poor families live in degrading slums and others are evicted to far-off relocation centers, where there were few if any jobs, hundreds of hectares of government land were being set aside for a casino complex and a family entertainment center (whatever that is, it sounds expensive). The poor that day were a small ragamuffin group and were ignored by the government and the media. After they finished the stations, they walked around the empty land. They found themselves in a vast and empty desert. The security guards they met didn’t know who owned the land or who had a claim on it. The people felt sad but they were helpless to do anything. The answer of course is not to give up, but to enlist more and more people in making sure that public land serves all the people. The best way to do that is for the people to ask that their opinions be heard. If there aren’t compelling reasons to sell the land now, why not wait until there are such reasons?

A Hopeful Presidential Poor Initiative

Commentary

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:45:00 01/17/2011

IN A long-delayed meeting President Aquino and the urban poor chose to attack urban poverty and the many problems of our cities in a collegial way through discussion and common sense, as collaborators rather than as combatants. Government and the poor have more often than not seen each other as opponents, or at least as obstacles in the way of each other’s plans.

The President agreed with the request of the poor for a three- to four-month moratorium on all evictions on public and private land. He and the poor believe the moratorium will create the peaceful milieu in which a committee, appointed by the President with representatives from government, civil society and the Church, can seek solutions to the many problems of evictions the poor brought to the President’s attention. Over 350,000 families in the past six months or so have received written or oral notice they will be evicted. With an average size of five members per family, some 1,750,000 persons are under threat.

For five months the poor people tried to arrange this meeting. They began to feel the President had forgotten their concerns, though they had signed a Covenant with him during the election campaign. On the matter of evictions the President had promised in the Covenant to give decent relocation for every family evicted, and to do everything possible to relocate the people in the city itself and not in far off areas, such as Calauan, Laguna, 115 kilometers away, where there are few if any jobs. In the first few months of President Aquino’s term of office there was no change from the old ways of evicting families, and the people wondered if the promised changes would ever come. They now believe they and government are on the right track.

The problems presented to the President are of two types: one set concerns the concrete eviction threats mentioned above that need solution as soon as possible. The second type concerns the long-term land and housing policies. Government, for example, must decide on its strategic priorities in the use of urban land. Will these uses include homes and jobs for the poor as well as for infrastructure, business centers, industry and homes and recreation centers for the well-off?

Such policy questions can best be answered with the help of urban planners, architects, social scientists, moral leaders, such as the Church, and representatives of the different stakeholders. Research is needed, including a better knowledge than we have now of what is happening and succeeding in countries around the world which have similar problems.

The poor have asked that the committee include, in addition to officials of the government’s housing agencies, Cabinet secretaries Corazon “Dinky” Soliman and Jesse Robredo, experts such as Architect Felino Palafox Jr., Dr. Esteban Godilano and Mary Racelis, the Mapua Institute of Technology architects and engineers, the UP School of Urban and Regional Planning, the Church and other moral leaders and civil society leaders. The poor suggest the committee choose its own chairperson.

Eviction is not the only problem the poor face. They need legal light and water connections, better clinics and schools (shouldn’t the children of the poor have the best teachers, for example?), help in finding work, land proclamations and housing loans adapted to the abilities of the poor to repay. They need an understanding government and an understanding elite.

Is it naïve to hope this cooperative approach proposed by the poor and approved by the President will succeed? Perhaps it won’t succeed fully, but that only means other new approaches are required. What is certain is that it makes no sense to go on trying to solve the growing problems presented by millions of poor, unskilled and unhappy families in our cities without some form of systematic planning that takes all aspects of problems into account. Our present policies haven’t worked. Government cannot ignore, mistreat, cajole or abuse its urban poor, now 20 percent of the country’s total population, and expect to have a peaceful harmonious nation. The poor won’t disappear. They will continue to sit on the doorsteps of the powerful demanding change.

Perhaps farmers, industrial workers, tribal people, the aged and other sectors can find similar planning arrangements with the President. He has shown a willingness to engage in more democratic forms of decision making.

The well-being of the entire country depends in great part on the President remaining close to the poor in these planning efforts. In turn he will be supported by the poor in his efforts at curbing corruption and building a nation based on social justice. It is difficult to see how he can succeed in these tasks without the poor.

(Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net)

Dialogue with Aquino worth the wait

By Denis Murphy, Manila

The Philippines’ urban poor finally had their long-awaited meeting with President Benigno Aquino two days before Christmas and found it was worth the wait.

Since July, when Aquino came into office, the urban poor have sought a meeting with the president to clarify the government’s position on the demolition of shanties, relocation of slum dwellers, social housing and basic services for the poor.

A press report on Dec. 15 suggested that the president had forgotten all about the poor despite an agreement he had with urban poor leaders during the elections. Aquino signed a “Covenant with the Urban Poor” as one of his campaign promises.

The Dec. 23 meeting between the president and 10 representatives of the poor and key government housing agencies resulted in a promise that the government will declare a four-month moratorium on evictions from public and private lands. The poor said the time was needed for government agencies and the poor to come to a consensus on how the issues in the “covenant” will be implemented.

President Aquino also agreed to set up a committee with representatives from civil society, the urban poor, the government and the Church. It will analyse the situation and make recommendations to solve the issues.

A main point of contention is the relocation of people evicted from their homes. The president vowed that no family on public or private land can be evicted without decent relocation. He also agreed that relocation of displaced residents will be “in-city” and not in distant areas where there are no jobs.

Felino Palafox Jr., head of one of the country’s foremost architecture firms, told the meeting that urban poor dwellers need not be removed from canals because there are ways to address access to the city’s waterways that will be beneficial to both the government and residents.

There are more than five million urban poor people in Metro Manila, where the total population is estimated by the Asian Development Bank at 14 million.

Urban poor leaders believe the government will have to attend to the immediate problems of the poor, like imminent eviction, while looking for long-term solutions to the problem, including providing jobs for the poor, improving education and ensuring good health.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, chairman of the social action secretariat of the Catholic bishops’ conference, for instance, has made attempts to train parish committees to help address the problems of urban poor communities.

The urban poor representatives who met with President Aquino found him knowledgeable of the problems people face. Results, however, will depend on seriousness of the people he appointed to address the issues of the poor.

Highblood : Santa in Payatas

By Denis Murphy Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: December 24, 2010

THIS CHRISTMAS I played Santa Claus, complete with a red and white suit and flowing beard, to 200 poor children in Payatas. It was a walk-on role with very few lines, just “Ho, Ho, Ho,” “Maligayang Pasko” and a few words about the North Pole. I wanted to be credible to the children and not spoil the party. I was nervous putting on my costume. I was like a matador, I thought, putting on his “suit of lights” while the crowd roars in the arena above. If Santa sits in the passenger seat near the driver, people see him. Everyone greets him like a pope or Manny Pacquiao. Children run along beside the car. No one seems to think it’s strange to see a grown man dressed as a child’s toy in Manila’s traffic. Our right front door, however, is broken due to an accident. I sat in the rear where no one could see me. We passed through crowds and traffic jams, but no one noticed. The Payatas Christmas party took place in a smallish covered court on top of what was once a hill of garbage. It is now covered with grass and serves as the compound of the company converting garbage to electricity there. I wondered if it was the same hill of garbage that collapsed 10 years ago. Bodies were recovered, but the local people told me at the time that there were many more bodies, especially those of children, still buried in the garbage. The government denied this, but the people said the children were dead and buried in the garbage, no matter what the government denied. I once wrote a poem about these children: The garbage hill collapsed, Burying hundreds of children. We found them, wiped slime from their faces And lay them in rows Arms crossed on their chests. Later when we looked back, They were holding tight to one another. I remembered the dead children as I made my way in among the children at the Christmas party. I think I was a flop. I wished them merry Christmas, but there was no response. I told them about the polar bears who live with Santa up north, but they didn’t seem interested. I tried to get them to sing “Silent Night” in English or Tagalog with the help of the parents. Again, no response. Is it possible they don’t know about polar bears? I looked more closely at the small children right in front of me. Their eyes and mouths were wide open in what looked like amazement. All the time I looked at them they didn’t blink. I thought I’d innovate a little, so I introduced my wife as Mrs. Santa Claus. I don’t think she was happy about that honor. Finally we gave out chocolate pops. None of the children rushed to get one, none grabbed for one; one little boy even returned an extra pop. They were definitely interested, but not in songs, animal stories, not even particularly interested in chocolates. I had played my part. If they pelted me with their chocolate bar wrappings, I wouldn’t have been surprised. I was a flop. “Goodbye, Santa,” Miss Princess and Miss Jing shouted as I got to the covered court entrance. I turned around and the children were all standing, cheering, waving their arms, and shouting, “Goodbye Santa!” “Merry Christmas, Santa,” Princess and Jing shouted. There was another thunderous roar from the little children. I felt so good I almost went back to thank each of them. I left them feeling better and wandered up the hill to a turn in the road from where I could see all of Payatas and all the way across the National Government Center to the Batasan. I thought of the children who may still be buried underfoot in the garbage. We have to be saddened by their short, sad lives, but surely they will have better Christmas parties than we have here. They’ll have God and His angels and not just an old guy who played Santa for a day. Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.

2010 UPA Christmas Party

The Urban Poor Associates and other NGOs celebrated their Christmas Party at the UPA office.

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PART 2:

Urban Poor Still Search for Shelter

16 December 2010 (Thursday). Three thousand urban poor people marched from Carlos Palanca St. to Mendiola today repeating the question asked by Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem: "Do you have a decent place where we can stay?"

Young urban poor acted as Mary and Joseph led the crowd to Mendiola to remind President Benigno Aquino III that the poor are still searching for shelter. Through Panunuluyan they are knocking on the Palace door, asking the president to grant their request to meet him to discuss their pressing worries and to urge him implement the covenant he signed during the campaign period.

Participants include children, old people, victims of demolitions, scavengers, relocated railroad families, people’s organizations, various non-government organizations, friends and supporters.

The theme of this year’s Panunuluyan is “Si Maria at ang mga Mahihirap ay patuloy na naghahanap ng Matutuluyan”. For more than two decades, urban poor group reenacted the old tradition of Joseph and Mary going from place to place looking for a place to settle in and where Mary can have a baby with the modern problem of homelessness of the people.

The Panunuluyan is sponsored by members of Task Force Anti-Eviction composed of non-government organizations such as Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE), with the help of various NGOs and people’s organizations.

According to UPA, there are thousand of homeless families in Metro Manila mainly because of forced evictions, illegal demolitions, and other concerns such as lack of access to affordable housing, high cost of living, labor contractualization, rural to urban migration displacements due to armed conflict and graft and corruption.

“We are afraid that the number of homeless people will grow in Metro Manila and its surrounding areas, if the 300,000 families threatened with eviction will consent to be removed without adequate relocation,” said UPA Deputy Coordinator Ted Añana.

UPA demolition monitoring shows that most of the families who will be forcibly evicted are those living along the waterways and estuaries to give way for the rehabilitation of the Pasig River. But urban poor people living along waterways have had been proposing an alternative housing solution. They sought the help of Palafox architects who created a design of housing along the waterways that will not interfere with the cleaning of the river, and the people living on the esteros will have a decent place to dwell in the city.

Añana concluded, “There are many efforts done by the urban poor. But it is just placed in a backseat. We have high hopes that the new administration will consider the proposal of the people and that the president will heed our call to implement the covenant he signed during the campaign period.” -30-