Series: Love & Justice are Inseparable

It is good for Filipinos to imagine that they are taking a visitor around, and the Visitor is none other than Jesus Christ. Bring Him to Payatas to see the scrawny figures of scavengers – children, as well
as men and women – scrounging through mountains of garbage. Let Him hear the story of the trash-fall of some 20 years ago, when a mountain of garbage collapsed on the huts of scavengers living beneath it: more than 200 bodies recovered and many still unaccounted for. Then take the Visitor to an upscale subdivision to see the massive homes and manicured lawns and swimming pools.

Incomes in the Philippines are so unequally distributed that the richest 1% has at least as much income as the poorest 30%. The phrase, at least, must be stressed since incomes from criminal and/or corrupt activities – the incomes that most deserve to be redistributed to the poor – would certainly be concealed from interviewers of the government’s income survey.

Amidst the many human dramas the urban slum dwellers face, you’ll find also in them many virtues and a tradition of sharing that has much to teach to the rest of Filipino society. And, when organized,
the people power of the poor can have an important role in changing the country’s politics.