Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Fighting the wrong battle



POPE Francis brought out the clarion call in his encyclical Laudato Si: Hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. These cries are loud and clear in these days. The cry of the poor: the price of rice is getting out of hand, inflation is eating up the poor’s meager earnings, jobs are very much wanting. They are groaning. The lines in the feeding centers run by charitable institutions are getting longer. The cry of the earth: several times in the past three weeks classes have been cancelled in several cities because of floods. Unfinished road constructions and plastic pollution in our streets and sewage systems prevent the water from flowing out. Now there is a threat of another strong typhoon. What is being down to prepare for it?

The poor and the earth are crying out loudly. But where is the attention of our government? Buying arms from Israel, ordering Sen Trillanes to be put into bars with the flimsy reason that his amnesty given more  years ago is invalid, accusing people here and there of destabilization moves! The government is in total disconnect with the people. It does not offer any solution to the high inflation except to blame others, that this is just false news (There is really no lack of supply of rice, they claim in spite of the long queues of people buying rice! ), that the opposition is hoarding the rice, etc. What preparations is the government doing for the impending typhoon? Nada! Yes, government institutions are being mobilized to court martial Trillanes, although he is now a civilian, to get a warrant of arrest for the senator, to apprehend the vocal critic, and now mobilizing the communications offices to sound the alarm of destabilization. It really appears that the government is fighting the wrong enemy, not the battle that the people on the ground are waging. How blind and numb leaders can become. And blind too are those who defend such leaders. Instead of using their influence to call on their beloved leader to see the dangers the people are now facing, they continue to cheer him up and defend him in his wrong directions.  They too are blindly misguided.

Let us come together to address the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. They are related to each other. Destruction of our natural resources affects the poor badly and directly. Now should be the time for the government to mitigate the impact of the coming typhoon. Concrete measures should be done so that the poor can get the basic necessities at the prices that they can afford, especially when the typhoon Ompong comes. We call on our government leaders to fight the battle that concerns the people – not their imagined enemies!


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