Bow, beggars, bow!

By Rolo B. Cena

Hushed Poppies

Dumaguete Star Informer

23 September 2012

Cebu City, Philippines – Every morning along the street, I could see them populating the area with some others.  Occasionally, they would rest at the façade under the traffic lights when the red light switches on.  She’s accompanied by a woman ten or fifteen years of her junior.  Her younger companion would normally usher her to cars or taxi cabs whenever the green light catches the flare. 

She’s blind but able to walk.

What contrasts the scene is the vivid fact that along the area where they beg for some pennies, the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) nestles.  Adding insult to the injury, the house built by the Department for the “lost and the less fortunate” Filipinos stands across the street.

They are not blind; they are very able to walk.

Lately, P-Noy has been hoping against hope of meeting Hu Jin Tao of the Imperial Chinese powers.  During their tete-a-tete at the recent APEC summit in Vladivostok, Russia, he was hoping to meet him; he failed.  Lately, he was still hoping to meet him.  He dreamt. 

What runs counter to his action now is when he heeds not the recommendation of Sen. Panfilo Lacson to talk to the Chinese government over the Scarborough to avoid trading the barbs.  Uncalled for exchange of hullabaloos can only propel unsolicited messages that can possibly, if not probably, smudge the relationship we have established with the Asian economic giant.  Now, he is in dire need.

P-Noy is not blind; he can ably walk.  More to this, he is not deaf; he can audibly listen.

Recently, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile exchanged accusations and unpleasant words with Senator Antonio Trillanes IV over Scarborough Shoal.  The former even lambasted the latter for calling Sec. Romulo a “traitor” during the meeting with China.  It was reported that Enrile was just responding to the privilege speech of Trillanes accusing the former of being a “lackey” of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Senators Trillanes and Enrile would have recalled that both of them staged and defined their own respective and peculiar sense of being a traitor:  The former led a military uprising against former Pres. Arroyo, claiming themselves as protectors of the Republic; the latter   consciously defended the dictator who was gradually killing the Republic and killed hundreds of people.  Just wondering what happened to the arrest and search order during the martial law days.

They are not blind; they can skillfully walk.  More than this, they can even dexterously kill people in the guise of protecting the national interest of the Republic.  Witnesses can attest to that; some of them are still alive despite the consequential economic, social and political deprivation.

The mid-term elections are coming close.  Politicians in the guise of Enrile, Trillanes, et al are starting to make ripples in the red seas of dirty Philippine politics:  Ripples that effectively send signals of trust-me, believe-me, and vote-me flyers; ripples that contagiously deliver signs of don’t-forget-me, don’t-forget-my-dad, and don’t-forget-my-son fillers.

Pleas can be articulated anytime; providential response is never pre-mature; politically-colored man-made mercy is.     

The blind, old woman down the street nobly begs for her sustenance sans the intention to cheat or steal at all.  These politicians of the “Peoples’ Hall” do beg in the guise of public nods, competently articulated sentiments with the oppressed, and sending financial helps and cause-oriented programs to the poor people, with the end in mind of getting back their investments.

Truly, when one is in dire need:  bow, beggars, bow!