What Maring showed us about charity and change

MANILA, Philippines - Social media’s heroism lives to die another day. As the rains subside and relief operations start flooding in, we uplift our spirits and ramble on with a cheer, a song, or a status post cum prayer for Metro Manila’s swift recovery. We (or the media) will again promote the event as a truly sterling example of Filipino ingenuity, resilience, and modern day bayanihan made possible through social media. And in less than a week, we will all go back to our normal lives. And we end it with #ReliefPH.

Such is the long term trend that we have seen for the past three years. It rains. It pours. And help comes in throngs from all sides of the region. Charity becomes its central driving force.

Charity is a virtue that enjoys a high status among Filipinos. In a poverty-stricken country, it is a mortal sin to bite the hand that feeds you. For an empty stomach, any form of assistance is received with open arms. Such acts of kindness become hard to question and are instantly considered good or heroic (depending on the amount donated). With a single donation from a corrupt official, all the people’s grievances are erased and all these politician’s debts to the people are paid. As Rizal himself said more than a hundred years ago, it is this strong and unquestioning sense of utang na loob that inhibits and paralyzes the Filipinos from liberating themselves.

That’s why the rainy season is heaven sent for these politicians and business moguls. They capitalize on the occasion and come out of their mansions to “help,” garner a captured audience of the largest segment of voters (the poor who are most probably in evacuation centers), and even enjoy the airtime on TV.

Personal gains

It’s quite sad that the occasion is now being used for personal gains. You can even say that the Aquino administration has fortified the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, the MMDA, and PAG-ASA with tools to act during storms, but has implemented zero reforms in long term solutions to flooding. Besides, who has time to stop and think of decentralized development to decongest the metro when the condominium industry is booming?

But in all honesty, politician or not, business mogul or not, charity in essence has become a convenient half-truth we believe in to assuage ourselves of the guilt that comes with being lucky in a luckless country. It has become a means for us to find “meaning” in our fortunate middle class dispositions while the majority remains below liveable conditions. The yearly influx of seasonal help has made even the average citizen define their ideas of a responsible Filipino as a humble charity worker, not as someone who fights tooth and claw for change.

This becomes the biggest issue with charity: it is scared to go into conflict with long-standing, powerful institutions in order to initiate meaningful change. In fact, it only keeps the status quo’s stable balance. Should all forms of charity cease, then the scales will be broken; more poor people would go roaming the streets, and the rich, without feeling any need to be charitable, would become even richer. And before you know it, the poor might stop hoping and would start fighting for their lives—a complete reversal of charity. Stop charity and the poor would take the balance in their own hands.

But that’s not the case today with charity around to mitigate poverty’s monstrous effects. Thus, we name our effort #ReliefPH, not #ChangePH, because we know that charity can only do so much. Charity is, in the first place, a product of imbalance to justify imbalance.

Necessary deeds

Nonetheless, whether you’re fighting for change or relief, charity or the need to act kind and benevolent become necessary deeds. For in avoiding charity, we become heartless. Perhaps, it’s charity that makes us human. Perhaps, we are human because we feel responsible for our fellowmen and women no matter what our social statures may be.

This is probably why nobody bothered to check whether the NGOs that our senators and congressmen were “giving” their pork barrels to were legitimate or not. Because we assumed that the 200 senators and congressmen were humans and nothing less; we thought they were at least charitable. Or perhaps, as humans, we have this need to stagnate—a desire to keep things as they are; a desire to battle change, the only thing that’s constant.

Until the time we tip this balance, it’s going to be the same thing year in and year out. The yearly rains will become a routine, not an ordeal, and we’ll call it a season when the streams, rivers, lakes and the sea crawl into the city; a season when we give our hand-me-downs to the people in need; a season when billions worth of valuables are lost and hundreds die of drowning. Pretty soon, we’ll forget that Ondoy ever happened, that habagat rains never used to be this strong, that storms like Sendong and Pablo claimed more than three thousand lives. And to once and for all place the yearly calamity to the realm of normalcy, we’ll consider it a ritual. Soon, we’ll give it a name.

Because, contrary to popular belief, we are not a forgetful people—we are a forgiving people. We’re more likely to say, “Gano’n talaga, eh,” or wax romantic/comedic with a tagline, “Where I’m from, everyone’s a hero,” “the Filipino humor is waterproof,” or even “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” We’d rather flee to another country than to combat the status quo. For we are, through whatever season, an understanding race that’s too kind to put up a fight.

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