Katarungan ng Diyos ang Ugat ng Payapang Adhikain is the Justice, Peace and Care of Creation promoter of the Dominican Studentate. The group aims to help the less fortunate citizens of the society by promoting social awareness of current Justice, Peace and Care of Creation issues in the country.
Lunes, Enero 28, 2013
Miyerkules, Disyembre 5, 2012
Wag natin silang sabihin na tamad!
Wag natin silang sabihin na "tamad." (Let us not say that they are lazy.) This was one reminder, though not the exact
words, that the facilitator gave us a few years ago in an orientation seminar
given to us before our mission exposure.
The facilitator was speaking of the people we will be living with,
people from different communities, the less fortunate brothers and sisters, the
marginalized in society. The
facilitator probably said it to prepare us so that we will not be scandalized
when we were at the actual places of our exposure.
Those words were always at the back to my mind when I was already in
my assigned area or community. I noticed that there were in fact many who worked
really hard, even in degrading jobs. The hardworking ones really eked out all
possible means to earn a living. With the
meager income that they had they were able to satisfy their family’s
needs. Yet there were others who, in my
observation, did almost nothing. They just stayed in their homes doing nothing or
hanged around with others on the street or houses of their neighbors who were
unemployed like them. Their days passed
on like that, a waste of time! How could
one not be tempted to think that their poverty was caused by their own doing? Most of the time we, or some of us, thought
that these people became poor because they did not exert enough effort or worked
really hard to have at least a better life.
They did not dream much of having a good life. I said to myself, how could they be helped if
they do not help themselves? How can I
say that they are not lazy when in reality some of them are! Those words of our
facilitator did not tally with what was in reality. Seeing some of them doing nothing, not even
lifting a finger in order to help themselves, how can I reconcile this with the
real situation? 
It took me some time to understand the words of the facilitator.
When I began to work in the justice and peace arm of the Studentate, it was
then that I realized the depth of the meaning of those words. I had the opportunity there to meet and talk
with different people, who came knocking at the door of our seminary begging
for help- most of which are financially-related problems. Although we do not
directly give financial help, we try to help people as much as possible depending
on our limited resources. It is our
policy to first interview them because we want to be sure that the help we
extend will go to the right person and the one most in need. In these interviews, I began to see the true
person and true reality of the poor. Their stories are stories of victims. Yes, victims of the many injustices in our
society. They are people deprived of
opportunities. Really, why did I say that? I looked in the internet to see what
the causes of poverty in our country are, here was what I found:
Population-
In an eager climb to get out of their situation, rural families often move to
cities in search of a new life. Since most of them are empty-handed, they often
settle and live on land they don't own.
Economics-Poverty
is the result of mismanaged economics.
With resources running very low, it is important to balance and utilize
whatever is left to efficiently produce goods and services to satisfy growing
demands.
Social
and Cultural issues -Mentalities such as crab mentality, materialism and
consumerism affect the way people progress in society. Their economic behavior
is very much influenced by personal vision and morals.
Poverty Cycle - There is a certain process in which poor people
remain poor in society. The unfortunate
continue to run in the rat cage of poverty unless a revolution is done to break
the cycle.
Natural
Disaster - Poverty is inevitable in developing countries where they are plagued
by floods, droughts and other problems. The poor become poorer when typhoons,
earthquakes and fires, for their livelihood is inevitably gone.
Poor Education - Education is one the most important factors in any
aspect of economic progress. It plays a
key role in developing any country, and if it's not nurtured well enough, society
will just continue its path to regression.[1]
I think the last item on the list really is the one that catches
attention because based on my experience talking with these people it is true.
This is not to say that the other causes on the list are not true. It’s just
that I can easily confirm this one because of my experience meeting these
people. Most of the time an indigent
never had enough education. Some of them did not finish their primary education.
There were people who did not even know how to read and write. I think poor education in many cases does
not happen of their own choosing. Although we can say that there were people who
chose not to go to school to get some education, most of the time people could
not go to school since they did not have the opportunity. In the first place, there are not enough
schools, facilities and teachers. Most
of us will be tired of hearing that one of the main cause of the lack or poor
service of the government was due to lack of funding. Lack of funding can be traced to the
corruption in our government. People are deprived of opportunities because it
was stolen from them. The services that
should have been theirs did not reach them because the money went into the
pockets of some of our officials. It is
the poor who suffer from the consequences of massive corruption in our
government system. They were given last priority and the least service when it
comes to what the government can offer like housing, health care, education
etc.
These problems are not
new. Even in biblical times, there were
people who were victims of injustice.
The poor were the widows, the orphans and others who were victims of
injustices. God condemned these people
who manipulate the law and use power or authority to their advantage. They were referred to in the Psalm, “those who create burdens under the law”,
Psalm 94:20. Are not these words speak
also of the people today who clamor for positions and then make it as a means
to their own advantage not minding the people who would benefit if those funds
were uses to help the people especially in the lower bracket in their need? Corruption may not be the only cause of
poverty in our country but we can at least link it to the fact that the
government cannot provide enough services to the people because of its lack of
funds. The people, especially the poor
and the marginalized in our society are the ones affected the most in the
system. Even in the study done by the Asian Development Bank or ADB one of the
reasons of poverty is the fact that the government’s program to eradicate
poverty is slow paced. According to the
article written by economist Bernardo Villegas, “there are over 30 million very poor people in the Philippines because
of three decades of misguided economic policies that gave very short shrift to
countryside and agricultural development. Such ill-advised policies led to the
lowest GDP growth rate in the region during the last 30 years of the 20th
century. To make matters worse, erroneous policies were accompanied by rampant
corruption in both the public and private sector.[2]”
In the biblical times, God sided with poor; he has this special
preference for them which is evident in the words of the prophets against the
abusive ruler and the greedy system.
They, the prophets, always cried for injustice done for these
people. They were helpless and God calls
the attention of the other members of the society. In this way God reminded his people to have
this concern for the least in the community.
It is also the same with us today.
The poor deserves some of our attention.
We may not have the capacity to help them always but at least in the way
we see or treat them we should looked at them as persons deprived of chances
and victims of greed.
Martes, Setyembre 11, 2012
Beginning of Human Love
Human love is one of the
most difficult matters for human intellect to understand. I believe that no human word can give perfect
meaning of human love without any action. We all know that different languages
have their own terms of love, but those terms may connote different meanings
and interpretations. I am sure that love
is real; it is present among us. We feel it and we see it through the fruits of
its expression. The question is: Do we
really know when human love begin and visibly expresses among the human beings?
My simple answer to the
question would be: Human love begins when the human heart starts feeling
and the intellect begins having consciousness of God’s love. It becomes visible
when we start sharing it to other human beings. The expression of human love,
charity, compassion, kindness and care among the Filipino people is more
visible when there are victims of natural calamities in the country. I know it
because I have been witnessing it many times with my own naked eyes for the
last 11 years. My fresh experience of
natural calamity in the country was the heavy flood caused by monsoon rains
last August 7 to 9, 2012, in Metro Manila. I can still clearly recall that in
the evening of August 7, 2012, there were some evacuees who came to the Sto.
Domingo Church (where our apostolatic group, KADAUPAN, members volunteered) for
refuge because their houses were flooded and they had nowhere to stay. Soon,
the number of evacuees swelled and Sto. Domingo Church was converted into a
temporary evacuation center for around 4,000 evacuees. The brothers and
volunteers were tireless in helping the victims. They served foods, drinks,
gave them dried clothes, blankets, mattresses and materials which the evacuees
badly needed. How wonderful God’s love
was! When the sustenance from our convent was about to run out, God sent a lot
of generous donors to help the victims. There were many volunteers from the
parish, the different universities like FEU, UE, UP, although the majority were
from UST. What inspired me more was that some of the evacuees rose to the
occasion by volunteering to help fellow victims. I heard a youth volunteer said
that even if he had been a victim of the recent calamity, he still opted to
help his fellow victims. He said that as a Catholic, to keep his spirituality
better, it is good to help others in a simple way such as volunteering because this
way, he could help many people who were like him, victims of flood. If these
were not the expressions of human love among the Filipino people, then what
could it be?
And
if human love
is visibly expressed among the Filipino people during natural calamities, like typhoons,
earthquake and heavy flood, how about among the Myanmar people? I hardly think about it. But finally I
thought that civil war can be the most visible expression of human love in our
country. This civil war started from the love of freedom for their ethno-linguistic
groups, their peoples, their families, their lands and to protect their full
autonomies in internal and external administration by their own leaders. They
sacrificed their lives for their peoples.
I had experienced
nonstop civil wars between the government’s forces and Kachin Independent Armies
in our country for many years while I was in Myanmar. I saw the Burmese
Military has left innocent people brutally tortured, abused, raped and killed.
The people most affected, were the largest of the ethno-linguistic minority
groups living in the States. They were really helpless. It has
been 58 years that the people of Myanmar
or Burma
have suffered under military rule.
The root causes of the civil war in our country
principally are: first, the failed historic Panglong agreement masterminded by
the General Aung San, the father of Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi; the second, the
Burmese government has historically treated the minority ethno-linguistic
groups and their land as a colony that must be subdued and exploited.
Concurrently to promote such a colonial enterprise, Burmese colonizing project
entails systematic creation of obstacles to deter intellectual progress of the
people, repress their identity as a people by marginalizing their cultural and
religious traditions, and well-planned racial project to enhance divisions
among the ethnic groups while promoting systemic ideology of superior Bamar in
the population-- in reality the inordinate human love of power, money and lack
of educations among the leaders of the country.
Are
those the expressions of human love? Maybe, but it is not a favourable one
because a true expression of human love must not be about power over others but
helping the unfortunate people. We need more leaders who know how to express
human love rightly and justly not to focus on power, money and their comforts
but the common good of the country, society and our people particularly to the
poor.
by Br. Stephen Mari La Ja, OP
***Disclaimer: Pictures in this blog are from the world wide web. No copyright infringement.
Martes, Agosto 14, 2012
The Hope of the Poor
“When
I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When
I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.”
-
Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara
One of my professors in the Studium during my years in philosophy used
to say, “If we turn around to find out the face of our neighbor we are expected
to serve and love as ourselves, we will find out that 9 out of 10 chances that
face would be that of a Filipino. 7 out of 10 chances, he or she would be
a poor Filipino, in need of whatever it is we can spare in love and justice.”
Indeed, nowadays, we can consider poverty as one of the most depressing and
saddest realities in our country. In our ordinary day-to-day life
especially in the Metropolis, usually, we encounter poor people, both young and
old, in the streets, churches, parks, markets, other public places, and even in
our doorsteps or information lobbies. Some of them, if not most, are not
just simply poor but even miserably poor. Worst, these poor people in our
midst increase in number each day. Hence, this problem needs to be
addressed, and as much as possible, with urgency.
My stay in the Dominican Studentate, Santo Domingo Convent in Quezon
City, for almost seven years now, has allowed me to observe and be exposed to
the various people around the vicinity of the convent and the church.
There are rich people living within high walled houses and mansions, and there
are poor people as well, who I think are actually the majority, who live very
difficult lives. Moreover, I was also experienced being exposed and
immersed in the missions where there are a number of poor families, as well as
in the urban poor areas in the very heart of the metro. My heart was
moved by their pitiful situation, and I wonder if these poor still hope to be
liberated from their poverty.
In the Service of the Poor
In our encounter with the poor and depressed, we will discover that
those poor people are suffering. And having seen and heard their great
and unbearable sufferings, we have the tendency to be moved personally with
their situation: we feel compassion in their situation. The first stage
of our commitment to the poor is characterized by compassion. Our
experience of compassion is our starting point. But this needs to develop and
grow.
There are two things which help in the growth and development of
compassion. The first is what we now come to call exposure.
The more we are exposed to the sufferings of the poor, the deeper and more
lasting our compassion become. Some organizations these days arrange
exposure programs and send people off to depressed rural and urban areas to
enable them to see something of the hardships and misery of grinding
poverty. Certainly, nothing can replace immediate contact with pain and
hunger, seeing people in the cold and rain after their makeshift houses have
been bulldozed, destroyed by natural calamities, experiencing the unbearable,
intolerable smells in a slum, seeing children suffering from
malnutrition. Furthermore, information can also be
considered an exposure. We know more than half the world is poor and that
roughly 800 million people in the world do not have enough to eat and in one
way or another are starving. Information of this sort can help us to
become more compassionate.
The second thing that seems to me to be necessary to develop our
compassion is a willingness to allow it to happen. We can put
obstacles in the way of this development by becoming more callous, or saying,
“It’s not my business,” or “I’m in no position to do anything about it.”
This blunts one’s natural compassion for the sufferings of the poor.
As Christians, however, we have a way of allowing our compassion to
develop, a way of nurturing our natural feelings of compassion. We
believe that compassion is a virtue, a grace and indeed a divine
attribute. When we experience compassion we are sharing God’s
compassion. We are sharing what God feels about the world today.
Moreover, our faith enables us to sharpen and deepen our compassion by enabling
us to see the face of Christ in those who are suffering, and to remember that
whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters we do to Him.
Ultimately, our compassion will lead to action. At first, our
action will probably be what we generally call relief work:
collecting and distributing food, blankets, clothes or money. Compassion
for the poor might also lead us to a simplification of our lifestyle:
trying to do without luxuries, trying to save money and to give our surplus to
the poor. Nevertheless, this seems that there is nothing extraordinary
about this. It is a long Christian tradition: compassion, almsgiving,
voluntary poverty.
The second stage in our commitment with the poor begins with the gradual
discovery that poverty is a structural problem. We discover
that poverty in the world today is not simply misfortune, bad luck, something
inevitable, due to laziness or ignorance or a lack of development.
Poverty today is the direct result of the political and economic policies of
governments, parties, and big business. In other words, the poverty we
have is not accidental. It has been created; it has been manufactured by
particular policies and systems. This means that poverty is a political
problem, a matter of injustice and oppression.
The discovery of the depth and breadth of poverty in the world leads to
feelings of compassion. Now, the discovery that this poverty is being
imposed upon people by unjust structures and policies leads to feelings of indignation and anger.
We find ourselves getting angry with the rich, with politicians and with
governments. We accuse and blame them for their callousness and inhuman
policies. However, our Christian upbringing makes us feel somewhat
uncomfortable with anger. We feel a little guilty when we get angry with
someone. Is it not sinful to be angry? Should we not be more loving
toward the rich? Should we not be forgiving the politicians their sins –
seventy times seven times? For those of us who want to continue to follow
Christ, our anger and indignation can lead us to a deep spiritual crisis.
The way forward and beyond this crisis is bound up with the discovery of the
spiritual importance of God’s anger.
There are two kinds of anger and indignation. One is an expression
of hatred and selfishness. The other is an expression of love and
compassion. God’s anger, indeed his wrath, is an expression of his love
for the poor and for the rich, for the oppressed and for the oppressor.
How can that be?
All of us have experienced this kind of anger. When our heart goes
out in compassion toward those who suffer, we cannot help but feel angry with
those who make them suffer. The deeper our compassion for the poor, the
stronger our anger for the rich. The two emotions go together as two
sides of the same coin. In fact, we cannot experience the one without the
other, once we know that the rich exploit the poor. And if we have no
feelings of anger, or only very little, then our compassion is simply not
serious. Our anger is an indication of the seriousness of this concern
for the poor. Unless we can experience something of God’s wrath toward
oppressors, our love and service of the poor will not grow and develop.
God’s anger does not mean that he has no love for the rich as
persons. We know from experience that we can get angry with the people we
love. In fact, our anger can be an expression of the seriousness of
our love for them. A mother who discovers her child playing with matches
and about to burn down the house must get angry with the child, not because she
hates the child but precisely because she loves the child so much. Her
anger is an expression of the seriousness of what the child has done and her
concern for the child.
Sometimes, we hear people say “hate the sin but love the sinner.”
Certainly, we can distinguish between love of the sinner and hatred of the
sin. However, this is a notoriously difficult thing to do. The more we
understand, however, that the problem is unjust structures rather than
individuals who can be held personally responsible for poverty, the easier it
is to forgive the individual and hate the system. Individuals are only
marginally guilty because they are only vaguely aware, if at all, of what they
are doing - like the child playing with matches.
As we grow to share more of God’s anger, we find our anger directed more
at the unjust systems than at persons, even if this is sometimes expressed as
anger toward those who represent and perpetuate these systems.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that our anger becomes weaker. Our
compassion can only develop and mature as we learn to take suffering and
oppression seriously enough to get really angry about it.
During this second stage, while we are grappling with the structure and
systems that create poverty and while we are learning to share God’s anger
about them, our actions will be somewhat different from the actions we engaged
in during the first stage. We will want to change the system. We
will want to engage in certain activities that are calculated to bring about
social and political change. Relief work deals with symptoms rather than
causes. Relief work is like curative medicine as opposed to preventive
medicine. What is the point of trying to relieve suffering while the
structures that perpetuate the suffering are left untouched? Preventive
action is political action. And so we find ourselves participating in
social actions, supporting campaigns against governments and generally getting
involved in politics. This has its own tensions and constraints.
But how else can one serve the poor? Relief work is necessary but what
about preventive work?
Contemplating intently on our actions for the poor, their situation and
the oppressive structures will lead us to another stage. It begins with
the discovery that the poor must save themselves and that they
will do so and will neither need you or me to
do it for them. Spiritually, it is the stage when we come to grips with humility in
our service to the poor.
Oftentimes, if not always, we assume that we must solve the problems of
the poor, either by bringing them relief or by changing the structures that
oppress them. We think that we must come to the rescue of the poor
because they themselves are so pitiably helpless and powerless. There may
even be some idea of getting them to co-operate with us. Or there may be
some idea of teaching them to help themselves (a classical theory of
development). But it is always “we” who are going to teach “them” to help
themselves.
The realization that the poor know better than we do, what needs to be
done and how to do it may come as a surprise. The further
realization that the poor are not only perfectly capable of solving the
structural and political problems that beset them but that they alone can do
it, may shock and shake us. In spiritual terms, this can amount to a real
crisis for us and to a very deep conversion.
Suddenly we are faced with the need to learn from the poor
instead of teaching them. There are certain important insights and a
certain kind of wisdom that we do not have precisely because we are educated
and precisely because we are not poor and have no experience of what it means
to be oppressed. “Blessed are you, Father, for revealing these things not
to the learned and the clever but to the little ones” (Mt. 11:25).
Indeed, it takes a considerable amount of humility to listen and learn from
poor, peasants and slaves, and those considered to be voiceless and in the
margins of the society.
When one is dedicated to the service of the poor, it is even more
difficult to accept that it is not they who need me but I who
need them. They can and will save themselves with or without
me, but I cannot be liberated without them. In theological terms, I have
to discover that it is the poor and oppressed who are God’s chosen instruments
for transforming the world, i.e., the likes of you and me.
God wants to use the poor, in Christ, to save all of us from the madness of a
world in which so many people starve in the midst of unimaginable wealth.
This discovery can become an experience of God’s presence and acting in the
struggles of the poor. Thus we not only see the face of the suffering
Christ in the sufferings of the poor, but we also hear the voice of God and see
His hands and His power in the political struggles of the poor.
The fourth and last stage begins with the crisis of disillusionment and
disappointment with the poor. It begins with the discovery that many poor
and oppressed people do have faults, do commit sins, do make mistakes, do fail
us and let us down or rather fail themselves, and sometimes spoil their own
cause. Like any of us, the poor are also human beings. They are
sometimes selfish, sometimes lacking in commitment and dedication, and worst
sometimes even waste the little money they have. We might even find that
some of the poor have more middle-class aspirations than we have and are less
conscientised or politicized than we are.
The discovery of these things can be an experience of bitter
disillusionment and profound disappointment, a real crisis or some dark night
of the soul. However, it can also be the opportunity for a much deeper
and more realistic solidarity with the poor, a conversion from romanticism to
realism in our service of the poor.
What we need to remember here is that the problem of poverty is a
structural one. The poor are not saints and the rich sinners.
Individuals cannot be praised for being poor or blamed for being rich any more
than they can be blamed for being poor and praised for being rich. There
are exceptions like those who sell their possessions and embrace voluntary
poverty or like those who become rich by exploiting the poor knowingly and intentionally.
They can be praised and blamed respectively. Most of us find ourselves on
one or other side of the great structural divide of oppressor and oppressed,
and this has a profound effect upon the way we think and act. It affects
the type of mistakes we are likely to make as well as the type of insights we
are likely to have.
We can learn from the poor precisely because they are not likely to make
the same mistakes that we are likely to make from our position of education and
material comfort. And yet the oppression and deprivation that they suffer
might lead them to have other misunderstandings and misconceptions. We
are all conditioned by our place in the unjust structures of our society.
We are all alienated by them.
Nevertheless, oppression remains a reality. The two sides are not
equal. The poor are the ones who are sinned against and who are
suffering. Solidarity with them means taking up their
cause, not ours. But we need to do this with them. Together we need
to take sides against oppression and unjust structures. Real solidarity
begins when it is no longer a matter of “we” and “they”. It begins when
we recognize together the advantages and disadvantages of our different social
backgrounds and present realities and the quite different roles that we shall
therefore have to play while we commit ourselves together to
the struggle against oppression.
This kind of solidarity, however, must be at the service of a much more
fundamental solidarity: the solidarity between the poor themselves. Those
who are not poor and oppressed but wish to serve the poor in solidarity with
them often do so in a manner that divides the poor themselves and sets them one
against another. We need to find a way of being part of the solidarity
that the poor and oppressed are building with one another. After all we
do all have a common enemy - the system and its injustice.
In the end we will find one another in God - whatever our particular
approach to God might be. The system is our common enemy because it is
first of all the enemy of God. As Christians we will experience this
solidarity with one another as a solidarity in Christ, a solidarity with the
cause of the poor. It is precisely by recognizing the cause of the poor
as God’s cause that we can come through the crisis of disillusionment and
disappointment with particular poor people.
This is a very high ideal and it would be an illusion to imagine that we
could reach it without a long personal struggle that will take us through
several stages, through crises, dark nights, shocks and challenges. What
matters is that we recognize that we are part of a process. We will always have
further to go. We must always remain open to further developments.
There are no short cuts. Moreover, we are not the only ones going through
this process. Some will be ahead of us and we may grapple to understand
them. Others will be only beginning on the road to maturity in the
matter. We need to appreciate their process, their need to struggle
further and grow spiritually. There is no room here for accusations and recriminations.
What we all need is encouragement, support and mutual understanding
of the way the Spirit is working in us and through us.
Justice and Charity
In the nineteenth century, with the rise of modern industry in the world
and the spread of Marxism, charitable works of the Church were seen and
criticized as exit-doors and camouflage used especially by the rich in order to
escape and evade the duty and responsibility to build a just society.
In keeping their status quo, they are in a way robbing the poor with their
rights. The Church admits that these observations contain some grain of
truth but not totally. It recognizes the need to build a just social
order, wherein everyone receives their share of the world’s goods and no longer
have to depend on charity. Moreover, the Church also humbly admits that
its leadership is slow to realize that the issue of the just structuring of
society needed to be approached in a new way. Nevertheless, the Church is
blessed with a rich collection of social doctrines which are fundamental
guidelines offering approaches that are valid even beyond the confines of the
Church. However, these materials should be interpreted in the present
context and to be addressed in the context of dialogue with all those seriously
concerned for humanity and for the world in which we live.
Secondly, even in the most just society, charity is necessary.
There is no ordering of the state so just that it can eliminate the need for a
service of love, inasmuch as there will always be suffering which cries out for
consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will
always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love
of neighbor is indispensable. Indeed, those who want to eliminate love
are preparing to eliminate man as such.
Since the just ordering and civil order is not the Church’s immediate
responsibility, thus the citizens of the state, i.e., the lay faithful, are
called in their own personal capacity to give a hand. The direct duty to
work for a just ordering of society is proper to them, the lay faithful.
The mission of the lay faithful is therefore to configure social life
correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy and cooperating with other
citizens according to their respective competencies and fulfilling their own
responsibility. Even if the specific expressions of ecclesial charity can
never be confused with the activity of the State, it still remains true that
charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful and therefore also
their political activity, lived as “social charity”. Nevertheless, the
Church can never be exempted from practicing charity as an organized activity
of believers inasmuch as there will never be a situation where the charity of
each individual Christian is unnecessary, because in addition to justice man
needs, and will always need, love.
A Spark of Hope
The Church of the Poor, not a church literally filled with the poor,
like what happened when typhoon ‘Ondoy’ hit the Metropolis, is one whose
members and leaders have a special love for the poor. This special love
is a love of preference for the poor. However, it must be emphasized that
this love is never exclusive and excluding in such a way that there is no room
in the heart of every church member, the Christians, for those who are not
poor. Christians are expected to love all persons whether they are just
or unjust, or even if they are our enemies.
Certainly, we are members of the Church of the Poor and hence, are
expected to have a special love for the poor. In other words, we as
members of the Church of the Poor are the hope of the poor around us. But the
question is, “Why is it that there are still so many poor people around
us?” What have we done? Are we even doing something for these poor
people? Do we give them a voice to speak their concerns and pains?
Do we give them a chance and opportunities to uplift their situation and be
liberated from their condition? Do they still have hope?
Yes, I do believe that they still have much hope to be relieved from
their sad condition, and a spark of that hope rests on our very own
hands. Now, in our own capacity, how can we really and concretely help
the poor?
by Noel Kristoffer R. Castor, OP
*An adaptation and reflection based on the
opus "The Four Stages of Spiritual Growth in Helping the Poor" by Albert Nolan,
and the encyclical letter Deus Caristas Est of Pope Benedict XVI.
***Photos by Br. Carlo Rey C. Canto, OP
Lunes, Agosto 6, 2012
Child Labor: Depriving the Child Dignity and Rights
Let the children
come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God
belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.
Family plays an
important role in safeguarding the rights and dignity of the children. The
family, being the vital cell of society, is the “primary place of ‘humanization’ for the person and society and the
cradle of life and love” (John Paul II, Christifidelis
Laici, 40).[3]
And family becomes a sanctuary of life when it is founded on conjugal love. The
home becomes “the place in which life –
the gift of God – can be properly welcomed and protected against many attacks
to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes
authentic human growth” (John Paul II, Centesimus
Annus, 39).[4] The
parents have the primary responsibility for the proper and normal growth and development
of their children’s physical, intellectual, emotional, and social well-being
and even the formation of religious belief of their children. They have to
provide a healthy environment and proper avenues for their children where they
can truly be children – learning, playing, and just being themselves.
Clearly, there
is a law that guarantees the safety of a child against any forms of abuse or
cruelty that violates his human dignity. Such law must protect the child who is
very vulnerable and can easily be deceived by people with evil intentions. Regrettably,
this law is never properly implemented. Though it is evidently stated in this
Act that the State should intervene in behalf of children when there is no
one taking care of them, yet we still find many street children roaming our
busy avenues, trying to earn a living doing menial jobs. Many work in factories
doing risky jobs. And some end up doing illegal acts like pickpocketing,
stealing and engaging in prostitution. There are also those who sniff solvent
just to escape the reality of poverty. Besides this law, what can our
government do to solve this crisis?
Pope Benedict
XVI pointed out in his Encyclical Letter Caritas
in Veritate that “openness to life is
at the center of true development” (28).
We are rational beings, and we must not forget that respect for life which is such an important principle in morality.
We must question ourselves on the role that it plays in nation building and
community development. The Philippines
is a nation that has a great respect for human rights and family values. And we
are among the very few nations that, until now, have not legalized abortion. We
believe in the sanctity of life. Openness to life as an important element for
true development means recognizing the potentialities of the children to become
valuable members of our society. The poor, including the working children, are
not to be considered a burden, but a resource of potential nation builders. And
if many Filipinos are now in deep poverty, population and life must not be
blamed for it. Rather, we must question the troubled system in our country that
seems to legalize injustice. We can never be so numb with the corruption that’s
going on. Ironically, the Philippines
is predominantly a Catholic country, yet for the most part we do not seem to
practice what we believe. Christianity is a religion of love and self-sacrifice
but scandalously, many of our countrymen cannot escape the chains of many
sufferings due to the indifference and selfishness of others. If we can only
practice the Gospel love in truth, we would be able to lessen the misery of
many. As Gustavo Gutierrez said in his book about Fray Bartolome de las Casas,
Luke 18:16-17
To value life is something
that is written and engraved in the soul of every human person, to believers
and non-believers alike. For us Christians, the sacredness of each human life
is inherent in man’s nature, given the fact that he is created in the very
image and likeness of God. No wonder we celebrate whenever a baby is born and
we thank God for this grace of life that He freely gives out of his
immeasurable love and kindness. Just as we value life, the more we should value
the life of children. Each one of them has the potentiality to become
productive members of the community, but only if they are properly cared for
and guided towards achieving their dreams and aspirations. Thus, special attention
and respect must be given to the well-being of children, to their personal
dignity and their rights.
Asked what he
wants to become in the future, a child normally visualizes himself having
either a high-paying job which can enable him to acquire the things he would
like to have, a decent career where he may be of help to his neighbors like
being a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher. Children are our symbol of hope. Many
of us can relate to this because we were all once upon a time children and we
were once upon a time very hopeful (In my wild imagination, I once dreamt of becoming
a flight steward and a priest both at
the same time). But looking at the present Philippines scenario, can we really
say that every child experiences a real childhood? Does every single one of
them enjoy the privileges and the rights of being a child?
According to a
recent report of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), as of October
2011, there are 5.49 million working children aged five to 17 years. More than
55.1 percent or 3.02 million were counted as child laborers while 2.99 million
are exposed to hazardous forms of child labor. This report comes from Labor
Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, citing a
recent survey done by the National Statistics Office (NSO) funded by the
International Labor Organization (ILO).[1]
Sixty percent of these child laborers are in the agriculture sector. But what
is alarming is some 2 million child laborers are exposed to hazardous
environments. In their fragile physical condition, their health is dangerously
exposed to chemicals, biohazards like bacteria that cause disease or physical
peril (This reminds me of the children working at the firecrackers factory in
my hometown Bulacan). There are also some who involve themselves in drug
trafficking. And some even become child soldiers. What is most saddening is the
reality that many of these children are trapped in the indecency of
prostitution, pornography, and sex tourism. At their tender age, they already
lose their innocence by participating in this lewd industry.
With or without
this statistics made available through surveys, it is a well-known fact that
child labor indeed is one of the many problems that our nation is currently
facing. We are everyday faced with it. There are children risking their lives
jumping into a moving jeepney to wipe the shoes of its passengers to ask for a
peso or two from them. And there are also those selling sampaguita in church compounds even up to very late hours so that
they may have money for school the next day. There are those who literally
insert their heads in filthy garbage bins or dive in the mountains of trash in
order to scavenge anything that can be sold in the junk shops. Or try asking
your helpers in your own homes. Are they in the legal age to work for you?
Sad but this is
what’s going on right now. Some children do not think and act the way they are
supposed to. They think and act as though they are mature individuals who can
take care of themselves. But the truth is they must undergo the normal life
development to attain integral maturity. They are not given the chance to
experience how it is to be a child. And how can we say they are still a child
when they are not treated as one? “Legally, a child is understood as a person
below eighteen years of age (R.A. 7610). He is someone who needs adult
protection for physical, psychological and intellectual development for his own
good and the good for the community where he lives.”[2]
Many social doctrines of the church call out for respect with regards to the
dignity of children. Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio states, in the family, which is a community of
persons, special attention must be devoted to the children by developing a
profound esteem for their personal dignity, and a great respect and generous
concern for their rights.
Family plays an
important role in safeguarding the rights and dignity of the children. The
family, being the vital cell of society, is the “primary place of ‘humanization’ for the person and society and the
cradle of life and love” (John Paul II, Christifidelis
Laici, 40).[3]
And family becomes a sanctuary of life when it is founded on conjugal love. The
home becomes “the place in which life –
the gift of God – can be properly welcomed and protected against many attacks
to which it is exposed, and can develop in accordance with what constitutes
authentic human growth” (John Paul II, Centesimus
Annus, 39).[4] The
parents have the primary responsibility for the proper and normal growth and development
of their children’s physical, intellectual, emotional, and social well-being
and even the formation of religious belief of their children. They have to
provide a healthy environment and proper avenues for their children where they
can truly be children – learning, playing, and just being themselves.
Unfortunately,
not every child is born to an economically able family. There are many who
belong to rural and urban poor families. Their parents do not have the means to
support them with the essential things which are needed for their proper growth
and development. Thus, at a very young age, many engage in labor to earn a
little bit of cash so as to help their parents in their daily needs. Culture
can also be a factor why there are minors who choose to work. In one of my
exposures in a far flung province, I lived with a family where the children
already help in sustaining their family’s daily living. The girls work as house
helpers and the boys work in the mountains cultivating their land. Though some
of them still go to school, they would usually reach only up to the sixth
grade. If asked whether they would like to finish their studies and be
professionals someday, their answer is yes. One was quick to say that
unfortunately, their parents, because of their poverty, would rather make them
work. The mindset of their parents is “Why send their kids to school if in the
future they will just get married?” It’s a pity but this is what’s happening in
their place and it has already become a culture. And yet, the parents cannot be
blamed for this kind of thinking. They are forced by their situation and if
they have a better option, they will surely choose what they know is best for
their children.
Hand in hand
with the children’s parents, the government must also ensure that the dignity
and rights of the children are strictly safeguarded. “The rights of children must be legally protected within juridical
system.”[5] Evaluating
the global scenario, the Social Doctrine of the Church continues,
The
situation of a vast number of the world’s children is far from being
satisfactory, due to the lack of favorable conditions for their integral
development despite the existence of a specific international juridical
instrument for protecting their rights, an instrument that is binding on
practically all members of the international community. These are conditions
connected with the lack of health care, or adequate food supply, little or no
possibility of receiving a minimum of academic formation or inadequate shelter.
Moreover, some serious problems remain unsolved: trafficking in children, child
labor, the phenomenon of “street children”, the use of children in armed
conflicts, child marriage, the use of children for commerce in pornographic
material, also in the use of the modern and sophisticated instruments of social
communication. It is essential to engage in a battle, at the national and
international levels, against the violations of the dignity of boys and girls
caused by sexual exploitation, by those caught up in paedophilia, and by every
kind of violence directed against these most defenseless of human creatures.
These are criminal acts that must be effectively fought with adequate
preventive and penal measures by the determined action of the different
authorities involved.[6]
In our country,
there is a law protecting the children against abuse and exploitation,
specifically those who are in the workplace. Republic Act No. 9231 is enacted for the purpose of eliminating the
worst forms of child labor and affording stronger protection for the working
child. In Section 2 of this Act, it is stated,
It
is hereby declared to be the policy of the State to provide special protection
to children from all forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and
discrimination, and other conditions prejudicial to their development including
child labor and its worst forms; provide sanctions for their commission and
carry out program for prevention and deterrence of and crisis intervention in
situations of child abuse, exploitation and discrimination. The State shall
intervene on behalf of the child when the parent, guardian, teacher or person
having care or custody of the child fails or is unable to protect the child
against abuse, exploitation and discrimination or when such acts against the
child are committed by the said parent, guardian, teacher or person having care
and custody of the same.
There is an
on-going program called Batang Malaya by the Department of Labor and Employment
(DOLE), a campaign which is a part of the Philippine Program Against Child
Labor. Its target is to cut down the number of child laborers in the country by
75 percent by 2015. Child labor as defined by the International Labor
Organization (ILO) is the work that deprives children of their childhood, their
potential and their dignity that is harmful to physical and mental development.
To address this issue, the government must really do something in order to
bring these children to where they truly belong, in their homes or in schools,
and not to the rice fields or factories or even in the streets. Sen. Loren
Legarda, in an interview, called on the government to provide more jobs and
opportunities for the poor. She said the enforcement of RA 9231 should be taken
very seriously by the concerned authorities, but more importantly, the problem
of poverty must also be addressed in order to stop the continuous practice of
many families who send their children off to work.[7]
She recommends the strengthening of job creation, promotion of livelihood
activities, and the provision of basic services to indigent families in order
to put an end to child labor. These are laudable recommendations and the nation
is hoping that they may be implemented.
But on another
note, the major proponent of the RH Bill is attributing the issue of rising
incident of child labor to the failure to enact this Reproductive Health Bill.
In the same news article, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman stated that “the unremitting
pregnancies of Filipino women in the marginalized sectors due to lack of
information and access to reproductive health and family planning services and
supplies largely contribute in the increase in child labor as numerous children
are suffered to work in their tender years to augment family incomes.” It is
not surprising that the issue of child labor would yet be another reason for
the advocate of this very controversial bill to push for its enactment. The
rising population of our country is said to be the reason for our problem on
poverty and parallel to this, poverty is the reason for the increasing number
of children who are forced to work. And we question again their argument. Is
population really the culprit for the contemptible state of our economic
situation? Many discussions have already been undertaken regarding this topic
and both sides had given their own positions. Again, it would come down to the
very heart of the issue which is life. Is it worth sacrificing life
in order to save a nation? This is not something new for this was also the
issue during the Sanhedrin’s persecution of Jesus. (Jn. 12:45-53) Again, a
simple principle can be applied here: One may not do evil so that good may result
from it. The intention of this bill might be beneficial but the object,
which is the deprivation of life, is not in conformity to what we consider as
moral.
Pope Benedict
XVI pointed out in his Encyclical Letter Caritas
in Veritate that “openness to life is
at the center of true development” (28).
We are rational beings, and we must not forget that respect for life which is such an important principle in morality.
We must question ourselves on the role that it plays in nation building and
community development. The Philippines
is a nation that has a great respect for human rights and family values. And we
are among the very few nations that, until now, have not legalized abortion. We
believe in the sanctity of life. Openness to life as an important element for
true development means recognizing the potentialities of the children to become
valuable members of our society. The poor, including the working children, are
not to be considered a burden, but a resource of potential nation builders. And
if many Filipinos are now in deep poverty, population and life must not be
blamed for it. Rather, we must question the troubled system in our country that
seems to legalize injustice. We can never be so numb with the corruption that’s
going on. Ironically, the Philippines
is predominantly a Catholic country, yet for the most part we do not seem to
practice what we believe. Christianity is a religion of love and self-sacrifice
but scandalously, many of our countrymen cannot escape the chains of many
sufferings due to the indifference and selfishness of others. If we can only
practice the Gospel love in truth, we would be able to lessen the misery of
many. As Gustavo Gutierrez said in his book about Fray Bartolome de las Casas,
Not to practice faith is, in a way, worse
than not knowing it. More precisely, not to practice the faith is to be
ignorant of the meaning and demands of the faith. This gives the lie, and
radically, to any pretense to instruct someone in a faith that fails to inspire
the instructor’s own behavior, so that, when all is said and done, the
instructor is actually rejecting it. To exploit the poor is to reject faith in
Jesus Christ.[8]
To exploit the
children and to take away from them their dignity and rights is indeed a
rejection of faith in Christ. It is to deprive them of the many possibilities that
should be theirs. In a way, it is a deprivation of their very life. Is it still
worth quoting our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal when he said that “Ang kabataan ay ang pag-asa ng bayan”
(Our youth are the hope of our nation) when there is only despair in the hearts
of our children? These words are meaningless if hopelessness is taking over the
spirit of our youth. Let us not uphold fatalism. If they can be the hope of our
nation, we must plant in their hearts that hope that will stir them to follow
their aspirations. If we are to see hope in their eyes, we must bring into
their world a better future that they can hope for.
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