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.
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