A Looming Culture of Mendicancy!
By Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig
As a Deist, I used to argue with friends over this Benjamin Franklin saying that “God helps only those who help themselves”. In case you’re wondering, a Deist is one who believes that supreme being does not involve itself in human affairs. No matter how “unchristian” it may sound, I believe in it… some how? Take the case of a compulsive LIAR. What good would it do for God to show the con-artist the path of truth? Perchance, when a guy is hell-bent on ruining his own life in such a fashion, the best help we can give is simply to let him do what he wants, and hope he learns his lesson someday!
I might be writing this article out of frustration so please bear with me…
One thing good about Ferdinand Marcos’ “new society” is the creation of the anti-mendicancy law. The law defines a mendicant as "any person who has no visible and legal means of support, or lawful employment and who is physically able to work but neglects to apply himself to some lawful calling and instead uses begging as a means of living" (Section 3, Par. 3, PD 1563). Mendicants have a criminal liability (Section 5). To top it all, abetting mendicancy also has its punishment.
For those who lived during the 70’s, begging used to be the very last resort. But now mendicancy has become an accepted way of life for some, and a substitute for uphill struggle. Beggars have become a traffic nuisance, poking and prodding motorists to take pity on them. Near where I live in Pasig Ultra, what used to be my only sanctuary for peace and tranquility was transformed into an evacuation center for typhoon victims. Weeks after the typhoon, when the sun was shining vibrantly, I saw physically able evacuees’ lugubriously sitting, waiting and doing nothing until for the next batch of Red Cross donations arrive.
Our culture of mendicancy comes to us in many forms and sizes!
My former UP professor Behn Cervantes wrote that self-serving politicians have long realized that the have-nots are taught to believe they are dependent on the generosity of the haves, who take advantage of this by practicing a culture of patronage. Thus, they wield power over the have-nots through another Filipino phenomenon, the utang na loob or debt of gratitude. TV shows like Wowoweee perpetuates another kind mendicancy, the dole-out mentality. The underprivileged pins their hopes on a game of chance and gamble money in hopes that luck will someday smile on them.
The eight million Filipinos living abroad has also fashioned a new-fangled form of mendicancy. The Philippines is the largest recipient of foreign exchange inflows from overseas workers, who mostly reside in the US, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and United Arab Emirates. A study commissioned by the International Monetary Fund said that the inflow of money by workers abroad creates a moral hazard; there is danger that the recipient will become dependent on his or her working kin abroad. Instead of contributing to the family upkeep, some members, even those of the appropriate age, lose their incentive to work and begin to regard the money as a right.
We have created an alarming culture of mendicancy! Let us put an end to it. Frederick Douglas wrote that human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him…
I agree with Amiel. Especially with the coming elections we expect dole-out!
mendicancy. insolence. laziness. loss of self worth due to wrong decisions. no one can help a person but himself. God has given each of us a conscience.. free will. if not used judiciously and worse if lessons are not learned from the same mistakes in life specially having reached rock bottom countless of times, no amount of outside help can rehabilitate a person. he will be incorrigibly forever rotten inside. i know so. i was a compulsive gambler. i got hooked with gambling at nine years old. at it till i was fifty two. everytime i was in the abyss of doom, i remembered God. for solace. but after a few days i forgot Him and went back to my addiction. this was a vicious cycle until one day i met a friend and classmate.... 33 years after our college days in silliman.... in dc. i was then newly transplanted here from new orleans. he swayed me to be spiritual without being religious/sanctimonious. it helped a lot that there are no casinos (legalized gambling) in dc. slowly i learned to help myself by first forgiving myself for my faults and later stopped blaming others for my shitty life... specially my upbringing. now i am a little better off. when i help others, it is because i can help. not because of guilt or to appease my sorry "behind". AMIEL, thanks for this article. you are always nice.
I agree... the question always is how do we change this?
Having lived in the US for several years, I must say the native-born Americans are no different. The culture of grandiose self-entitlement is pervasive as well as the patronage mentality (try reading the local newspapers). Of course there are always the "stars" that would break free (in my experience, immigrants, usually).
So what then are we called to do? When the leaders of your country and the "celebrities" promote these ridiculous values so as to keep themselves in power, I tend to ask myself how many of us "educated" Filipinos really reach out to the less fortunate and inspire them to do better? How many of us really take the time to mentor those who may benefit? Don't we tend to simply give a monterary donation as it takes very little time to do so as opposed to really reach out and show someone how what the possibilities are?
That being said, I'm so happy to be reading Philippine blogs and see people actually reaching out these days and I do hope that the time will come that Filipinos take hold of our own destiny. But it will be because of people who are willing to take the time to reach out that and show people the light.
Yup... take hold and be responsible of your own destiny FLIPS! Stop corruption, stealing, taking advantage of others... HAVE DIGNITY IN YOURSELVES!
We hope Carlitoz can someday write a piece for Victorina!
Filipinos have lost their PRIDE! Ang hilig mag-limos...
"Weeks after the typhoon, when the sun was shining vibrantly, I saw physically able evacuees’ lugubriously sitting, waiting and doing nothing until for the next batch of Red Cross donations arrive."
hindi laNG yan Amiel they made ULTRA smell like feces... YUCK!
let said...
We hope Carlitoz can someday write a piece for Victorina!
October 25, 2009 9:07 PM
Hi Let, Thank you for the endorsement. Your comment made my day easier. It is Sunday, 10:23AM and am here in the salt mines (office!). The reality is I can only articulate on something which I intimately know or a topic which tugs my intellect and heart. That is the reason why I only react to certain issues/articles; writing one.. am not sure about that. thanks again!
a political strategy... keep the poor begging; give them crumbs and win the votes!
then write something dear to your heart carlitoz... it would be refreshing for Victoina readers diba?
I'm so happy to be reading Philippine blogs and see people actually reaching out these days and I do hope that the time will come that Filipinos take hold of our own destiny... GO GO GO VICTORINA!
Frederick Douglas wrote that human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him…... VERY MACHIAVELLIAN BUT VERY TRUE!
Carlitoz is sexy!
larry
when you lose your incentive to work and begin to regard the money as a right then your a fucking LOSERS... right on amiel!
agree with anon..."Don't we tend to simply give a monterary donation as it takes very little time to do so as opposed to really reach out and show someone how what the possibilities are?"
BUT SOME ARE JUST STUBBORN.
I LOVE VICTORINA!
I'm a Deist as well Amiel...apply social Darwinism!
Extermination of the unfit, survival of the fittest...
Watch the movie Titanic that's the way to survive!
Right on Amiel!
Even Brian was a survivor... After loosing his money he stood up and fought!
You took the words out of my mouth in a very legal-layman's term manner. I once told my mom, "Given this amount of money, I'd give it to that hardworking garbage collector than to that beggar! Christ's sake, they leech people to live despite their able bodies!"
NO MORE BEGGARS IN CEBU!!!!
Concerned citizens can report any beggar or street child to the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Center by calling 2548375 or 2552260, so the task force can pick up the beggar or child...Adult mendicants caught beyond 9 p.m. will be detained at the Mabolo Police Station, while the minors will be taken to the Pari-an Drop In Center.
rather than giving alms to beggars on the street, which will only encourage more poor to beg,assistance would be better channeled through charitable institutions and organizations... street beggars are part of a syndicate!
Very similar to boldstars article
very legal-layman's article... the work of master pr-man
That's what Erap wants... mendicancy for votes!
Concerned citizens can report any beggar or street child to the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Center by calling 2548375 or 2552260, so the task force can pick up the beggar or child...Adult mendicants caught beyond 9 p.m. will be detained at the Mabolo Police Station, while the minors will be taken to the Pari-an Drop In Center...
CEBU IS BETTER MANAGED!
Riding one of the Philippines’ iconic “jeepney” mini-buses used by the poor, Joseph “Erap” Estrada burst into Manila’s dockside slums to begin a seven-month drive aimed at returning him to the presidential Palace... THE RISE OF THE MENDICANTS!
It is a good piece but it is only half of the story. Yes, there is a problem of mendicancy or dependency but it is not just because people are lazy or unmotivated. It is not in our DNA as pinoys to beg in order to survive. On the contrary, given a chance to work and an earn a decent living pinoys will go anywhere in the world for the opportunity (thus the more than 8 millions OFW). Outside of the Philippines, filipinos thrive and succeed, much more so than many other nationalities. So why do we have this problem in this country now. The huge difference is population; in 1970 the population was just over 36 million, today we are more that 92 million. Yes, the problem is compounded with corruption, inefficiency and many other governmental ills but the main reason is lack of opportunity to work. It is very easy for people in this country with good jobs to judge. The numbers below, as extracted from wsws.org, gives a grim reality.
In its fourth quarter survey, the Social Weather Stations (SWS), a survey group, found that 11 million people or 27.9 percent of the adult labor force (over 18 years) were unemployed. The result was based on face-to-face interviews with 1,500 people across the country. Since 2005, SWS surveys have shown an unemployment rate in double figures. In 2007, 17.5 percent were unemployed despite record economic growth of more than 7 percent.
In another survey, SWS reported a record 23.7 percent increase in the number of families experiencing hunger at least once in three months, to 4.3 million families or more than 20 million people.
According to a 2006 government survey, more than 27.6 million Filipinos or 32.9 percent of the population are poor. The figure includes those who could not “provide in a sustained manner for their minimum basic needs for food, health, education, housing, and other social amenities of life”. The number of “subsistence poor”—those unable to provide enough to eat—were over 12.2 million. The figures are undoubtedly worse today.
The expanding population, limited land and rapidly depleted resources make this problem so predictable. Even those who are lucky to find jobs in this country, a large percentage are underemployed, often with salaries barely enough for food and rent. The more advanced countries have welfare, Medicare, student assistance programs, social services (both government and private) and many other social back-ups for their citizens. We have nothing like these in this country. Our major cities are teeming with slums and most of our provinces suffer from lack of opportunity.
Filipinos have a warped sense of loyalty, most would expect blind loyalty to those who gave you money, favors, opportunity, etc. and you are supposed to turn a blind eye to what he/she is doing. Those who would report the wrongdoings of his superiors are ostracized as ingrates by society (as a majority).
On the subject of giving alms, I don't know with you guys but I don't have the time and luxury of determining if a beggar is working for a syndicate or not, for me is a choice between feeding a hungry person (perhaps not eaten for days) or ignoring him and take the risk of letting an unfortunate individual starve to death, then comforting yourself that you did the right thing after. I can't take that risk, if I have something to share I will do so in a heartbeat...
...the way I see it, we have all the opportunities to earn more, so we can share more...so we work harder...
Wow, excellent comments here.
I'm always so pleased that sooo many smart people have reached the true core of the problem.
Let me be juvenile for a moment.
#1 Roman Catholic Church=Over population
#2 HORRIBLE Corruption EVERYWHERE!
#3 Wowoweeeee and Manny Villar giving aay houses on said show. Ok Manny, we KNOW you are the OFW Buddha. Can I have a house. My Boyfriend is an OFW too!
#4 HOW can Erap even be ABLE to run for the top job again? He's a convicted plunderer who stole money from the country?
Where is the rage?
WHERE does the man get the money to afford this run anyways? I'm soooo confused.
How can community leaders teach the newer generations modern values and morals when they see corruption in every nook and cranny. Erap won't win anyways, but still....it stinks
Noynoy is going to win.
Let's face it. The Catholic church is mostly responsible for over population in the Philippines.
That and a goverment under the churchs control who does not seem to mind that the vast majority of impoverished filipinos will never receive any proper heath care or proper education. The two together are a double edged sword.
The church LOVES over population. They NEED overpopulation. The church puts its hungry greedy appetite for more sheep before anything else often to the demise of said sheep.
The Catholic church has some stronghold on the country because I see it everywhere on my facebook. This troubling control over the Philippines is distressing for an Catholic outsider to witness.
I'm a Roman Catholic Deist (Thank You Amiel)who attended a strict Catholic school and Catholic church. I was a choir singer and an alter boy.
I was a good Catholic boy but I did tend to steal money from my mother.
I did burn down some buildings once and I had forced sex with a priest many times. Yet I'm convinced I'm still going to heaven! I ate a LOT of those wafers and I've drunk a LOT of Christs blood,many bottles of wine being blood)
Anyways,
With no separation between church and state, you are bound to have these gross injustices perpetrated on the masses.
Over population is a passive aggressive form of genocide.
On a lighter note,
My boyfriend has arrived in Canada after an ENDLESS VISA process which of course went our way. He LOVES his job and has already met some wonderful people from home. I'm so happy to have met my guy on Boracay. I have the best gift any country could give me. Filipinos are great amazing people. I have one of the best.
Thank you Philippines for healing yet another hole in my heart.
If you believe in something, go for it! If you believe in true love... you're on the right track.
Hey, If I can get an amazing boyfriend being HIV positive.. there is hope for everyone.
Be a good person and do not steal cheat or lie. That's how I got my boyfriend.And that's how my boyfriend got me.
Love Brian
on my account, there are only three issues here.
one, in any society there will always be the poor, no matter where you go. Jesus the nazarean "allegedly" mentioned this. furthermore, entitlement is not exclusive to the rich. the poor also feel entitled to a living. however some do not work hard and would rather beg. there is supply and demand on one side and a "culture" in the other, though we are not relegated to this analysis alone.
two, despite the fact that it is punishable by law, some examples of street-side mendicancy are controlled & manipulated by the state, groups in opposition, and other parties, most often not in conjunction. some mendicants are sent by the bus load to roam manila in order to provide "aura." syndicates also get a share of whatever funds are collected. mendicants have been used as religious, socio-political and economic pawns by puppet masters of all stripes.
three, one's reaction boils down to a personal choice. will you give to the poor through proper channels in total anonymity? will you ignore them? will you become a mendicant yourself, albeit in a different guise? will you give to the poor and make a public spectacle of it? there is an entropy of unlimited variations.
the scripts have been made millennia ago. there's nothing new under the sun. except for the love of God and the sublime.
I believe mendicancy is not a sickness, and the majority of the poor and hungry should not be treated as lepers.
Greed is the problem here and its many faces...and the writer's seemingly steadfast stance on "Am I my brother's keeper?" The problem stems not in giving but that we are not giving enough...look to your conscience, ask yourselves when think enough is enough - most would say (or not) that when giving already encroaches on our own wants...we believe that we can only give that which we don't need anymore, extras, we give just enough (or barely) to keep our brother alive but wanting for more - so they become dependent...our brand of giving is cruel...
With JV as mayor, he doesn't seem to do anything about the numerous kids that peddle near Greenhills shopping complex (intersections of Wilson, Connecticut, Ortigas, etc). Also, there's increasing number of "kariton" families sleeping along P Guevarra sidewalks & Ortigas. Then, look at colonies in front of San Juan postal office (along Santolan/P Guevarra). A lot of illegal electric connections. Then, chaos in traffic (Wilson/Ortigas - haughty PUVs that beat red light at full speed). Something's gotta give. And the kids are supposed to have been schooled in elite institutions. Please... one of the relatives has gotta make a difference & defy traditional politics. Please.....
Wow comments are becoming smarter... "roman catholic deist"- I LOVE IT!
I love mendicancy..!
NOT
"will you become a mendicant yourself, albeit in a different guise? " I LOVE IT ANON!
Mensa, I can't tell if that is sarcasm. I'm not that smart.....
I mean it ... i JUST USED "roman catholic deist" in my blog.
thanks
MWAH!