i chanced upon this story of an old woman in rated K, korina's weekly tv magazine program aired on ABS-CBN, last week. and like any story of an old woman, i was blown hard.
i am moved in such a way that i always have this heart for the elders. looking at them and observing them never fail to jolt me. how agonizing it must be to live in such a condition at an old age?
her plot is similar to others. like this lola (which passed my recollection of the name), most still work to survive not only for herself but for her family to feed. it reminds me of the old couple i always see whenever i walk pass Espana to my university. the couple, perhaps abandoned by their family or perhaps they have no family at all, sells dailies, tabloids, candies and cigars to live by each day. and each day that i pass, i couldn't help but grasp. how unfortunate they must be? how cruel fate has destined them to such a horrible condition.
all of them reminds me of how lucky my own lolas or lolos were for not having experienced such misfortune, for not having passed unto us that gloomy stature. though, they might not be financially abundant, they were well taken care of in the same manner that they have reared us.
with this filthy-poor condition that they found themselves struggling, i can't help but set my eyes toward the making of a system where they thrived and unfortunately, still prevails.
to my mind they are a product of a live-by-the-day life or as best put by the pinoy saying "isang kahig, isang tuka." the plight of poverty in this country was so much that it even pushed for a worse scenario-poverty mentality, that is.
this can be traced as far as the Spanish colonial rule, when the friars would arrogantly teach out-of-context the beatitudes-- "blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the heavens" (Mark5:3). Highlighted was the poor so the friars collected usuriously lump sum of taxes and indolence. it went so for hundreds of years until the filipinos stood for liberty. but by then, the seed of this mentality was already germinating in the filipino consciousness.
ask any filipino today every time a visitor stays in their abode. the line is perennial: "pasensya na po heto lang po ang nakayanan namin," even how festive and grand they might have prepared.
then came down series of revolutions during american and japanese occupations. and like any other colonial stories, the natives become subjects to their own promise land. when this could have been fertile time for accumulating wealth and founding finance-sources, the filipinos, the natives, were instead struggling.
it was only the post-war era that the filipinos "almost" felt like they were living in this land as if their own. it was only during this era that they settled in accord, having the chance therefore, to build up their own wealth. Unluckily, the post-war era was turned into some strand of neo-colonialism, when it was the wealthy chinese and spanish descendants who have taken the merchant's and trader's role and positioned themselves thus, to greater access to both money and power.
the filipinos, as were the older times, were left middle, second-class and "indios", in their own native land. and these were the times when the now-lolos and lolas have begin their struggle for survival. the seed has grown by this time when most of them resolved to becoming mere working class citizens. they have worked hard and toiled flesh and blood only to bring in money to foreigners' pockets.
the lesson here is quite simple: train the filipinos to handle the machine, and train them well for that matter, abusing their concept of "sipag at tyaga" while the rich foreigners tool their kids with knowledge to handle and birth business empires.
and if we were to rank today's richest people in the Philippines, blah blah blah, they are heirs of chinese and spanish mestizos which have come to embrace becoming "Filipino" because they inter-marry, because they have already perpetrated such an immense wealth here.
the education system has done nothing but make the "poverty mentality" in filipinos worse. filipinos are prepared by universities and colleges to become working citizens. and now, they prepare them to become world-class professionals which is also read as bring-more-wealth-to-their-pockets. Since then, the Philippines has been exporting manpower to the pleasure of the rest of the world. only during the turn of the century did the Filipinos turn to become self-made entrepreneurs. it was already late.
the rise of social services for worker protection also came late.And although these institutions have encouraged or forced the working filipinos to save something for the sunset-days, the saving is not at all entirely dependable.
so there goes lola, ironically seating in small chair inside Quiapo church earning a meager 20 pesos from every church stopper, who doesn't even know how to pray and ask her to intercede for them, when it could have been her reaping days.
there she goes satisfied accepting what she believed as God's fate for her. or was it really? was it not a product of a long endured problem of non-education or miseducation or ill-preparation for a future?
and there goes lola, a product of an erroneous past, cladding in her arms a small notebook where she lists down all prayer requests from her customers.
