How many more dead children?

Mariannet Amper’s suicide could have been averted. The heavens, however, probably chose her to be the innocent victim of and most honest testimony to the moral bankruptcy and deception of this country’s leaders.

Irony of ironies, just as GMA was boasting to the business people about her programs, including her anti-poverty campaign, within her administration, within her term, 11 year old Mariannet, from her poor house in Davao, gave up on hope, gave up on the lies of this administration, gave up her young life as her simple unfulfilled wishes remained written in her notebook.   

How many Mariannets would have had their wishes (for a bicycle, for a new pair of shoes, a bag, and better-paying jobs for parents) fulfilled had the brown bags of several millions of pesos been distributed fairly and honestly to the deserving poor, not to the selfish and greedy leaders of this land, ironically, within Malacañang?

Are votes during elections or in exchange for continued loyalty to this administration more important than the lives of the millions of poor children and families? May the blood of 11-year-old Mariannet forever haunt GMA and all other leaders who rob the children and their parents of their dignity and humanity.

For all those who pocket public funds away from the most needy in this country, may Mariannet’s death remind them about the heavy and serious weight of their crime to the children and to all, especially to the Lord. May the abusers and the corrupt allow their greed and selfishness to die and be buried ahead of Mariannet’s burial.

Posthumously, finally in death, Mariannet’s family gets the attention of government? Because of Mariannet, her family now has P5,000 and more promises of belated help and assistance for her parents, no thanks to this government.

Talk about insulting Mariannet – is she worth only P5,000, so much less than those who attended the gift-giving in Malacañang who received at least P200,000 or more?

And why does government move only now? Why did it take a child’s suicide to make this government see their plight and hear their cries? How many more dead children will move the leaders of this land to see the depravity of their acts and the greed in their souls?

Oh, that God may finally render justice to the good and the needy and punishment to the evil and the greedy!

Mariannet understood poverty. She spent 11 years in poverty, with her family. She did not give up too soon, she only gave up when she probably realized that with an ailing father, her dream to continue to go to school (with her dream bag, new pair of shoes and a bike to bring her there) would never be fulfilled in this land led by the blind leaders who do not see the poor and the reality and depth of their simple basic needs.

Not all poor children commit suicide. The dead among them did not have to. How many thousands have lost their lives due to hunger, due to diarrhea, due to lack of sanitation and medication because the public funds intended for these basic needs went instead to useless roads, bridges, infrastructures, to the pockets of the abusive and the corrupt?

Not all poor children are out of school? Because of Mariannet, GMA posthumously orders the wider coverage of distance education to the millions of Filipino children unable to be educated because the corrupt and truly uneducated are in the halls of power. Only upon her death, GMA discovers that her rice program for the schoolchildren has not been effectively implemented? HELLO!

Mariannet does not represent all the Filipino children, that her suicide was an isolated case? What data and statistics are GMA and her administration officials looking at? Are the corrupt in government, from national down to the local level, only familiar with the figures with the Peso sign in them, especially the public funds that they have coopted and claimed as their own?

Tama na, sobra na, palitan na!

If GMA and her national and local cohorts have delicadeza left, they should  take responsibility for the suicide of Mariannet, for the worsening of poverty among 11 million Filipinos, and they should today step down from their posts. They have failed not only this child. They have killed not only this child. They have killed countless others and will continue to do so with their immoral and corrupt brand of money leadership and politics. They are responsible for millions others driven by poverty to go abroad and be painfully separated from their loved ones. They continue to extinguish the good and the beautiful among our people.

 How much longer do we need to bear this abusive, immoral, corrupt leadership? Where are those who believe in truth and integrity, those who say they believe in God, those who lead the people in the name of the Lord?

May Mariannet’s death be the pure and genuine catalyst for real change to take place in the hearts of our people, especially the abusive and corrupt.

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