Like I’ve seen saying all along, there is no issue with giving. Charity begins at home as the cliché goes. What these Opposition “thought leaders” don’t address is the question of the need to encourage dependency on government, which is what they’ve been carping about since the pandemic began.
If the idea is to feed the hungry then food banks should’ve been set-up a long time ago. It should’ve been institutionalized and the Church should’ve been at the forefront, but why is it they are not? Then there’s the question of politicization. Inquirer columnist Gideon Lasco is an example when, in his article “Community pantries and the dependency myth”, he writes…
Thankfully, some LGUs and even some government agencies have been quick to recognize the value of food pantries amid this time of grave economic crisis. But even as this political support is most welcome, we should anticipate and challenge the dependency myth because it delegitimizes what the writer Criselda Yabes calls “a silent revolution,” and diminishes the appeal for individuals and communities alike to act on what the government itself has failed to provide…
A “silent revolution” against who? Government? Why? Is it the obligation of government to feed each and every citizen or all poor Filipinos? There are some who claim that poverty is a social disorder. I have traveled the length and breadth of the country and I can say that it is a combination of the choice of the average Pinoy to remain poor and the lack of development in the regions which is the responsibility of government.
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The Opposition has gone to the extent of root-cause analysis in defending the community pantry so why don’t they go all the way to what is really the root of all poverty in the country? The problem lies in the socio-political structure in the country. It goes all the way back to the time of the colonizers. It also has its roots in religion.
What Lasco cannot deny is Ana Patricia “Patreng” Non and her mother Zena Bernardo are members of the Opposition whose goal is to oust a duly-elected government or sway public opinion to their side in order to win in May 2022. The voters have made their choice known in the two previous election cycles. The surveys indicate they want continuity for the future.
I argue that our next President should be prepared for a drastic overhaul of socio-political and socio-economic structures in order to come near to a more equitable distribution of wealth. It doesn’t help that the next generation is of the belief that government should do more. We are still a developing country. We have been left behind by our regional neighbors because of the problems identified earlier.
The pandemic will not end anytime soon and vaccine nationalism is real. As it is, both the public and private sector are slow to adapt measures which sets the country on the path to economic recovery. The Opposition is not being constructive because they believe doing so will not work in their favor. The public, however, is not in favor of a destructive opposition as has been proven in the past five years. They should start listening instead of making noise.
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