it's about time

have you heard of the government's new project on food coupons? they're equivalent to food stamps in the states. Filipinos who go through every single day without a single meal will hopefully not get hungry anymore. i heard this on the AM radio on my way to school. it seems like my question, "Why is the government ignoring them?" has now been answered. they seem to notice the street people too.

a couple of weeks ago Jeremy (my school paper co-writer) and i roamed the UN Avenue and Padre Faura area in hopes of finding "the thinking man". dubbed so because he stands by a tree in front of the Supreme Court all day at Padre Faura, gazing at the tree or at the sky doing absolutely nothing at all but just stand there and think. he's a foreigner too, probably of Sudanese or African decent. he does not look like any other street person because he usually wears a polo shirt and trousers. only, people (especially UPM students and Supreme Court employees) find it odd to see him there everyday.

it was a long hunt for Jeremy and i. it came to a point when we went inside a police station at U.N. avenue to ask around for a "foreigner street person". the policemen gladly shared bits and pieces of information like how the street man daily comes to the station to ask for free coffee in the morning, information that the "thinking man" was arrested once and spent the night in jail, and that the man was of German decent. Jeremy and i were puzzled. we thought the man was Sudanese.

it turned out that we were talking about two completely different people. there was a German street person/homeless who roamed the area every single day. he liked to stay outside McDonald's at UN avenue to ask for left overs. Jeremy and i went back to the McDonald's for days in hopes of catching the German man. we gave up after hours of waiting for him. while walking back to UP Manila, i yanked Jeremy by the arm and exclaimed in excitement: "Look! It's him!!!". i couldn't contain my excitement and i pulled him across the street to approach the German man. however, he declined to be interviewed for the article. he even growled at us, two innocent campus journalists. so we backed out in fright of getting our heads bitten off.

so much for the German guy. so we proceeded to interviewing the usuals at Padre Faura. the street is frequented by several homeless people. we approaced "Manang Lydia" and she gladly answered our interview questions.

after the interview, it felt odd to just leave her there all sprawled under the waiting shed at the pavement. according to her, the others were taken by a DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) truck. the truck comes by often and takes the poor to the homeless only to be released the next day after being fed with instant noodles. she said she had no family, her children had already abandoned her. her only relative moved away without even telling her where. this is why she lives alone in the streets.

Manang Lydia is just one of the many street people in Manila. you would be shocked to see what reality has to slap you in the face with. it's heart wrenching to see little kids live in the streets and be vendors instead of studying, playing, or just plainly living their childhood like any other kid.

it's about time someone paid attention to them. it's about time someone took them out of the streets. i wonder why we have to give too much budget to the military when even a small percentage of it can fill the hungry stomachs of street people and provide shelter for the homeless.

if you have the answer, please let me know because i am in dire need of answers as of the moment.