So near Yet So Far (Color of Poverty Il)
by Oro Plata
As what I have promised to myself, last March 9, 2020 I visited the grassy portion of an abandoned project along Manila Bay in Pasay just across the GSIS Building where the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines is housed.
Although I was not able to find Pedro there, I've seen and met several homeless families whose stories are not far different from each other, but their suffering is one and the same. It pained me, especially so that the present dispensation is so popular among the poorest of the poor but it seems that they are not given appropriate attention. I was told that most of them have been there for the last three years.
I am sad to see the newborn kids knowing that no help is coming sooner and only God knows when because the government leaders are busy with something else and the lawmakers are comfortably seated in their air conditioned rooms busy on what tax measures they will pass next to appease the President who swears a lot.
As I bade goodbye to the homeless families that morning It's not just the colour of poverty I see once again but the smell of the odour as well.
