IT WILL COME TO PASS
For days and nights, decades and centuries, the poor asked for Mercy, Compassion, and Justice.
They tilled the land for years and years, toiling and cultivating from dawn to dusk. They, whose sweat and strength were offered, whose devotion nurtured the soil, yielded golden harvests. These fattened and fed the “lords,” who oppressed and belittled them as slaves.
Never did they experience
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
The ages, bent over in feudal bondage, rendered their hands rough like rocks and smooth like stones from labor and pain. They wept and cried—not because they were heart broken or weak of will; they wept from the pangs of hunger and insatiable grief and strife that awaited their sons, daughters and grandchildren.
Never did they experience
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
Time has passed; yet, still they are the landless poor. Generation after generation, their dignity violated and rights denied, they feel the suffering of ages past, and fear the pain that may still come, if they do not resist. In asserting and demanding what it justly theirs, they rise up, as this is their only real alternative. Not to fight and struggle for survival is to fail their children and damn them to never-ending suffering. Accused of treason, indicted of subversion—the the law of the “lords” is used against them.
Never did they experience
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
They build houses, where they will never dwell. They sew the seams of dresses, which they could never wear. Their fingers deftly assemble technologies, which remain foreign to their lives. As craftspeople, they are surely proud of their handiwork. Still, they are alienated from the products that they produced. The capitalists arrogate that they were compensated, but their work was leveraged for the profits of the “lords,” while they were afforded pittance salaries, often not enough to tide them over, so that they can slave yet another day.
Never did they experience
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
Under this time of COVID-19 lockdown, the 16.1 million poorest families[1] or even the most vulnerable 12.5 million families are surely most anxious and worried. With their economic mobility and productivity greatly disrupted, if not outright stopped, they are in a horrible bind. Insecure from the “stay at home” policy, they are among the most likely to bend the rules and try to maneuver ways toward earning possibilities. Like Jean Valjean of Les Misérables, they might be compelled to break the law, when through tears and fears, they set out to save the lives of sick, hungry or desolate children.
Never did they experience
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
The poor have never really known compassion. Through the years, they have been locked-down in an unjust and violent system of exploitation and oppression. They created wealth with their hands, sweat, blood and tears. They broke limbs and bones in their work, and then, they were twisted and insulted as centavos were given—often, like in the biblical story of Lazarus, from a “lord” who had never acknowledged them as people.
Never did they experience
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
Now COVID-19 is spreading like a plague and the authorities have a plan. The President and his military men scheme draconian. The fundamentals of curbing the spread of the plague forgotten. Mass and systematic COVID-19 testing neglected. Economic welfare and health considerations passed over—the vendors, drivers and contractual workers, and all those who live a hand-to-mouth existence are left-behind. Stay at home, the law commands. 2.5 million live in slums[2]; 3 million are without homes.[3] They would not be able to comply, for they have been neglected for the longest time.
Then it came to pass…
…the authorities monitoring the residents’ compliance with curfew came upon Dorothy Espejo, a 69-year-old homeless woman sleeping on a Manila street. When she was alerted by barangay officers, she shouted back. She was arrested. The authorities readied charges against her: Breach of Peace, Article 151 of Revised Penal Code or Resistance and Disobedience to a Person in Authority and Oral Defamation.[4]
Then it came to pass…
…the chief of the Sta Cruz Police station, hit residents using his stick, in the Muslim community of Quiapo,[5] while threatening that he would shoot anyone who violates the quarantine law. The PNP chief of directorial staff, justified the act, saying, “In our current situation, there are many stubborn people and I can only imagine how the police felt.”
Then it came to pass…
..when a man of stature, privileged and rich, violated the quarantine. Senator Koko Pimentel violated both quarantine and hospital protocols. He publicly announced that he meant no harm to anyone.
The poor woman in the street means no harm to anyone. The pedicab driver means no harm to anyone. The construction workers, labandera, street vendors mean no harm. But, they must stay at home or pay the price for not obeying.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) came to the rescue. They will not investigate the Senator without a formal complaint. They definitely will not arrest him without a warrant. The rights and privilege of Senator Aquiline “Koko” Pimentel III will be upheld. The DOJ appealed to the public for compassion on his behalf: “During abnormal times like this, when people are prone to commit mistakes or violations of the law, the DOJ will temper the rigor of the law with human compassion. But this is not to say that the DOJ will not act upon the filing of a proper complaint by any interested party,” said DOJ Secretary Guevarra.
And it will come to pass…
When the poor will say,
Neither law nor compassion have been on our side.
When we break the rules because we are hungry and thirsty
The law descends like an iron fist that mocks our rights.
We have seen privilege and power
Wielded by those who “LORD” over us,
Forcing us to our knees and sneering at our misery.
We will rise up, expelling the exploiter
And setting the crooked straight again.
And the ‘lords” will be cursed by the generations whom they have robbed,
for our memories are clear and our commitment formidable—
The poor will be slaves no more
And we will taste the sweetness of Righteousness.
Mercy. Compassion. Justice.
Freedom.
Norma P. Dollaga
Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan
(KASIMBAYAN)
[1] https://www.ibon.org/covid19-php296-billion-urgent-socioeconomic-relief-for-the-most-vulnerable-filipinos/
[2] https://www.rappler.com/nation/256034-pcij-report-says-fighting-coronavirus-requires-efforts-help-poor
[3] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-landrights-lawmaking/manilas-homeless-set-to-move-into-more-empty-homes-if-official-handover-delayed-idUSKBN1H41L7
[4] https://www.rappler.com/nation/254926-cops-arrest-homeless-lola-shouted-tanods-warning-about-curfew
[5] https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/03/27/20/cop-faces-probe-for-beating-quarantine-violators
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