Of One Million-Peso Dinner and Hungry Filipinos

I recall the days when we had to resort on scavenging plastics, can, and rusting metals around the house that could be sold to the junkshops just to have a dinner for the coming night. I also can’t stop recalling those days when Pa had to climb our coconut tree so that we could eat the coconut meat for our lunch. I just couldn’t help myself to recall those days and shake my head whenever the details of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s lavish dinner at Le Cirque in New York spring up at the news. Whatever explanation or “palusots” that they can come up with, the only thing that is clear is that the expensive dinner is plain wrong for the president of a third-world country that have a large segment of population experiencing starvation and malnutrition.

It doesn’t matter if it was a gift from an ally congressman or “palibre” of a private citizen. It doesn’t matter if the dinner is not delicious (as had been the “palusot” of Lito Lapid) or that the food in New York City is quite expensive (which is quite unlikely since middle class Americans can live inside the city). What matters is that President Arroyo and her friends have the heart to spend large sums of money on expensive dinners despite the fact that many Filipinos are hungry, that many Filipinos are experiencing the brunt of typhoon Kiko during her foreign travels, and that former president Cory Aquino just died. Where is the face offering sympathy to the Filipino people who lost a “mother?” Where is the PGMA who, in many photo-ops, shows that she is a caring mother of the Filipino people? When did it occur that a decent mother will stomach eating expensive food while her children are experiencing an eternal crisis?
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How many Filipino people will benefit from $ 20, 000 worth of money? Pundits computed that the same amount of money can feed hundreds of children, print thousands of school textbooks, and could give the needed medical care of the poor patients. But instead of giving it to the people, PGMA and friends chose to spend it on a dinner that leaves a bad taste to the mouth of the Filipino people.

I can’t stop myself from pitying this country. This is the style of leadership that our politicians offer. I couldn’t help but be sad for the people who had to scavenge for food, for the people who have to scrounge the trash cans just to eat, and for the Filipino people who died because of starvation. That is just bad, too bad. :-(


Image was lifted from Manila Bay Watch blog.