"With growing joblessness and hunger, it looks like things may get worse before they get any better."
"With growing joblessness and hunger, it looks like things may get worse before they get any better."
Not quite a few would dismiss as a stale news the reported death of a stranded probinsyana at a footbridge at EDSA in Pasay City recently. Ordinaryo na yan.
But the tragedy of Michelle Silvertino dramatizes the plight of impoverished Filipinos, as aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 33-year old mother of four, may have succumbed to coronavirus complications after waiting for a bus ride to Camarines Sur for five days.
It turned out Silvertino was an applicant overseas Filipino worker (OFW) waiting to be deployed when the pandemic hit the country, and she ended up working as a house help in Antipolo City.
After two and half months of lockdown, she decided to rejoin her kids back in the province.
Along with other stranded travelers, Silvertino was reportedly driven away twice by the Pasay City street clearing team but kept coming back to the area, hoping to catch a bus ride to Bicol.
Pasay City policemen once took her to the local barangay hall for assistance but was reportedly refused, being a non-resident there. Seeing that she looked sick, the policemen then offered to take her to the hospital but she instead chose to go back to the bus stop.
Indifference, ignorance and inefficiency on the part of public servants as much inaccessibility of essential social services are what exacerbate the difficulties that poor Filipinos.
The least that the Pasay City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) and the Barangay 159 officials could have done was to report or coordinate the situation of the stranded people to the local social services department for appropriate action.
Instead, the CENRO street clearing team chose to just drive away the distressed travelers.
When taken by policemen to the Barangay 159 office, Silvertino was allegedly refused assistance of any kind because she was not a local resident.
Correct me if I’m wrong but such inaction of barangay officials is in violation of the Local Governments Code guidelines and comprises “dereliction of duty.”
It may also be a violation of RA 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Law, having failed to extend or facilitate medical assistance to a person in need.
As I’ve said earlier, we all understand the rationale behind community quarantine which is to contain the widespread of the COVID-19 contagion.
But the government at all levels, from national down to the barangays, must ensure that essential public services are available and accessible when direly needed.
Competent and efficient public servants must be deployed to implement such social services program.
Not only that, they must show that they value the lives of fellow Filipinos, particularly poorest of the poor.
Amid the chaos and the continued threat of the pandemic, the eyes of a nation in agony are on elected and appointed officials in the corridors of power, in the local government units (LGUs) and down to the barangay officials.
Some officials clearly have shamelessly not been doing their jobs well, prompting President Duterte to act on problems they failed to solve.
It is said that they serve at the pleasure of the President, but at times I really wonder what Manong Digong finds pleasing in them—enough to keep them in the posts.
With growing joblessness and hunger, it looks like things may get worse before they get any better.
These officials are obviously comfortable with their high salaries, plush homes and government-issued vehicles. But they must at all times bear in mind the conviction that poor Filipinos’ lives matter, too.
