EDITORIAL - The face of poverty

A bicycle, a bag and a pair of new shoes. A humble wish list for a 12-year-old, though Marianeth Amper could have hoped for too much in the fourth item: decent jobs for her parents so she could finish her schooling. Since public education up to high school is free, Marianeth didn’t need money for tuition. All she wanted was money for her daily fare so she could end her frequent absences from school. Unable to get her wish, the fifth grader hanged herself on All Souls’ Day, in a shanty without water or electricity in Davao City.

The despondent child has become the face of poverty in this country where nearly 12 million people earn  less than a dollar a day. Marianeth was the youngest of seven siblings, and obviously they also did not have the means to finance their sister’s meager requirements for schooling.

On the eve of her death, Marianeth reportedly asked her father for P100 for a school project. That is a small fortune for a man who has been jobless for months, and whose wife earns barely enough to make ends meet in her part-time job in a noodle factory. The father told Marianeth that there was no money. The next day his daughter was dead. 

There are many other children burdened by the problems faced by Marianeth. Though basic education is free, schooling entails many other expenditures. Each year thousands of children drop out before high school; thousands of others never make it to college. In some cases, parents themselves send their children out in the streets to beg or sell their bodies for sex.

Marianeth was buried yesterday as public officials and other quarters showered her parents with assistance. Beyond dole-outs, however, the best thing public officials can do to prevent a similar tragedy is to create an environment that will provide decent job opportunities for the majority of Filipinos. That environment is best achieved through honest and efficient public service.

The tragedy of Marianeth amplifies the failure of the benefits of economic growth to trickle down to the poor. What’s left is a crushing hopelessness from which even children see no way out.