When it is the rainy season as what we have now (yes, no summer this year), everything becomes difficult. Business is slow, and for the less fortunate, a few pesos become difficult to come by. When it happens, it does after surmounting great difficulties.
Yet life goes on. Those who have to farm, they would go home at dusk with their pale feet very wrinkled. It is the effect of being submerged in water the whole day, under the rain, in the cold. They are however better off as they have what grow or live in farms to live on.
For their counterparts in cities or highly urbanized towns, those without stable sources of income would be in dire situations. Everything slows down during our wet months and many businesses would be operating at a loss. Their owners become tight fisted, not letting go of even small coins.
There would not be much seasonal jobs to offer to anyone. So the problem on how to buy something to eat becomes a real issue every mealtime to the urban poor. Others would not even have a roof over their head to protect them from the elements.
While, their situations are dire as of now, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait when the typhoons come roaring in which could happen anytime soon as predicted by our weather men. It will rend anybody’s heart with even just an iota of humanity in it. The scary howl of the wind, the pouring rain, dwindling supplies in the kitchen, possibility of accidents, etc., make one think of those without a safe house and without even just a warm soup to sip during meal times.
Up to now, there is no stable and organized way for the government to deal with these less fortunate. There are no regular soup kitchens, no regular evacuation buildings, and no credible agency to accept donations for them by those who live in comfort, even if only to assuage their conscience. Of course the DSWD is there but from the “looks of things”, they are merely reactive instead of proactive. When an emergency situation emerges due to a calamity, then they start acting.
A more urgent issue however is how to reduce the number of the less fortunate. This is a ticklish matter but we are very sure that any effective strategy would need some big funding and this could not be satisfied by the government as of now, and for all eternity. . . . . . that is, as long as this country is being ruled by the oligarchs, according to PDu30, or as long as a very minuscule portion of the population are allowed to hoard the vast portion of our country’s wealth.
As of now, PDu30 has yet to announce any comprehensive plan to deal with this sad reality.**