‘Revolutionary change’?
Annabelle, recounting the days her family had to skip meals, said their situation brings her to tears. “’Pag mga ganoong pagkakataon, masamang masama ang loob ko. Ang sarap umiyak,” (In times like those, I feel so bad. I feel like crying.) she said. This situation leads the urban poor into thinking that fundamental changes have to take place in order for them to be alleviated from the ever worsening poverty situation. Government statistics confirm the fact that the incidence of poverty is growing at a disturbing rate since the year 2000.
Poverty, said an investigative journalist, foments social unrest. While the urban poor continue to suffer, they are not to be expected to remain silent.
According to the Constitution, the state has the responsibility to provide for social services including affordable and decent housing for the poor populace.
In this sense, the urban poor have every right to question the inability of the government to uplift them from their miserable conditions. Urban poverty, resulting from joblessness, should be addressed said Jon Vincent Marin of Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap. This, he said, could be effectively addressed through industrialization to provide employment and make available affordable basic commodities to the Filipino people, and through genuine land reform to provide peasants with land to till.
With the continued refusal of the government to do so, the country’s urban poor are beginning to realize that change could be achieved only through the people exercising their political will to disentangle themselves from poverty.(Bulatlat.com)
