Motel crimes could be poverty-related

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

Frederick Douglass

By Alex P. Vidal

POVERTY remains to be the number one source of depression among the Filipinos.

Even the Ilonggos in Western Visayas face the grim task of how to arrest and, perhaps, reverse the trend now that the National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) has confirmed that Western Visayas economy has slowed down in 2013 due to a substantial slump in the agriculture hunting and forestry and fishing (AHFF) industry.

If economic analysts will go beyond air-conditioned rooms, they can see the gnawing reality; many sectors in society are still very much saddled by financial woes.

A big chunk of the hoi polloi still can’t prepare a decent meal on the table for their families.

Violent domestic spats, health problems and gradual deterioration of the quality of life can be traced to this social malaise.

When there is nothing to eat during meal time, moods change, blood pressures increase, tempers flare up.

Crime and violence become the order of the day.

OPPORTUNITIES

Unemployment and lack of opportunities to wiggle out from dire straits are among the biggest stumbling blocks in a Filipino’s quest to live a normal life and maintain a peace of mind.

As a philosophical theory, existentialism is supposedly an approach that emphasizes our existence as a free and responsible agent determining our own development through acts of the will.

Many major cities and provinces are still infested with crime elements engaged in nefarious activities—all related to poverty.

The case of a despondent mother who recently hanged herself after killing her three-year-old child in a Bacolod City motel may be dismissed as a mental health issue on the part of the mother, but poverty may have driven her to commit the twin macabre crimes.

Some of the reasons why humans kill each other--especially their own relatives--are: 1. They are mentally disturbed; 2. Property dispute; 3. Crime of passion motivated jealousy; 4. War among kingdoms, territories, countries; 5. Extreme hopelessness due to poverty.

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The letter addressed to Capiz Gov. Victor A. Tanco and Vice Gov. Esteban Evan B. Contreras and signed by two leaders of the Christian fellowships in Capiz and Iloilo regarding the P500 Million Yolanda Rehabilitation Fund, is an evidence that not everything is well in as far as the distribution or non-distribution of calamity funds for the super typhoon that ravaged parts of the provinces of Capiz and Iloilo is concerned.

That politics, as usual, reared its ugly head once more even if it involved the welfare of the people.

“Our warmest greetings to you all and the hardworking women and men of the Capiz Provincial Government.

“It is with the highest esteem that we reach out to you in this moment of confusion, sadness and disappointment. All these, as we have since supported your beliefs that a public office is a public trust.

“Mr. Governor, Vice Governor and our honorable board members, we are however deeply moved, even embarrassed, on the latest media report to hit our province. And this is in reference to the news about the P500 Million Yolanda Rehabilitation Fund for the damaged school buildings here.

Like the rest of our Christian-faithful, we ask, what is going on with the implementation of these relief programs of the National Government?

“Why is this happening to our province when we know that your administration is committed to delivering much-needed rehabilitation works? How can this happen to the detriment of our thousands of schoolchildren who up to today suffer from undelivered promises? How true that all these happened because of intervention of our beloved Congressman Tony Del Rosario? How true that all these were known by the hierarchy of the Department of Education particularly by Undersecretary Valera?

“We implore from your good office to please heed our call for action and corresponding investigation. We need to have the people behind this be held accountable.

“We implore from your good office to please make public the reasons why this delay even happened. We entirely depend on both your Executive Office and our Legislative Branch—our Capiz Provincial Board to shed light on this matter.

"Yours in pursuit of genuine service to the people.

Suplicio P. Morales Jr., Capiz Baptist Minister Association, Province of Capiz; Rev. Ramon E. Plaza, Evangelical Minister Fellowship of Iloilo City, Iloilo City. Signed August 20, 2014.”