The rich, the middle class and the poor

(First of two parts)

Most of us are class-conscious, except that we don’t admit it. We insist that we don’t distinguish between the rich and the poor, but deep in our hearts, we deal with people depending on their stations in life.

In last Monday’s edition of I-Witness on Channel 7, the show did a thorough study on the people belonging to different economic brackets in Philippine society; the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Actually, there are two different kinds of rich people - the old rich and the nouveau riche. Between the rich and the middle class is the upper middle class. And between the middle class and the poor is the lowest middle class. I’m sure I’ve missed out on other in-betweens, but we can’t put all those down here.

Luchi Cruz Valdez who did last Monday’s I-Witness report, was therefore correct in narrowing down her report to just those three main economic classes we mentioned above. Otherwise, she would have ended up with a hopelessly unmanageable miniseries forever begging to be trimmed down.

Luchi Valdez started her report by going to the enclave of the rich. She chose the Violago family of the upscale Corinthian Gardens as her first case-study.

The Violago’s fabulous residence should be familiar to motorists who regularly pass along the EDSA-Robinson’s flyover during the Yuletide season. Theirs is that huge Las Vegas. (I wonder how much they pay Meralco during this time of the year.)

The Violagos built their fortunes on those low-cost housing projects that are now scattered all over the metropolis. (I’m sure you are familiar with those Violago Homes subdivisions.)

The Violagos were nice enough to have allowed I-Witness into their home. And what a home! Parked in the carport were luxury cars - the cheapest of which was a Mercedes Benz. In the living room were upholstered chairs with armrests gilded with what looked like. . . hey, was that real gold?

From the kind of opulence displayed on television, the Violagos struck me as nouveau riche. But then, that’s already none of my business. Inggit lang ako. However, did they have to put their dog in a bumblebee costume?

Actually, I harbor no resentment over the fact that the Violagos are swimming in wealth while here I am hanging on to two jobs to keep my life going.

Based on what I saw in I-Witness, the Violagos deserve to enjoy what they now have. They obviously worked hard and persevered through life. And now, they are reaping the fruits of their labor.

The Violagos are obviously the good and kind rich - not the snooty ones we see often depicted in most Tagalog movies.

But what about the rich, bad people who amassed wealth through corrupt practices? That would have been interesting to see on TV. But then, who would agree to be interviewed for that kind of a story?

Representing the poor is Mang Narding who lives like a rat in a hovel in the dumpsite of Payatas.

Mang Narding should be familiar to the regular viewers of I-Witness. In the show’s Bubungang Pangarap episode – which won in the New York TV Festival early this year he was also one of Luchi Valdez’s resource persons. In that episode, we saw Mang Narding collecting garbage for a living.

But now, the dumpsite had been ordered closed and Mang Narding and his children are starving. Your heart will really go out to him - especially since he’s now putting up for adoption his young daughter, Len-len, out of sheer desperation.

Actually, after the Bubungang Pangarap episode was aired by I-Witness the other year, Mang Narding received a lot of help from the public - and even from the people of GMA-7’s news and public affairs.

Mang Narding said that he wanted to work once more as a driver. The Channel 7 people therefore helped him get his new driver’s license. He even had an entourage of GMA staff members that accompanied him to the LTO office in East Avenue: producer Grace Leung, Cesar Apolinario and Elmer Gatchalian.

Not long after, he found work as a school bus driver. He lasted only a week in this job because his employer screamed at him - and so did some of the mothers of the kids he brought to school.

At this point of his story, I have to admit that I stopped sympathizing with him. Okay, he got screamed at. But was that enough reason for him to have quit work after only a week? All of us have been screamed at before we finally got to where we are now - don’t you agree? Of course, nobody would want to get screamed at. Unfortunately, that is a fact of life that all of us working people have to live with.

Call me heartless and judgmental, but I think the problem of Mang Narding is not necessarily the lack of opportunities to succeed in life. If I may be blunt about it, it’s a trait called indolence.

(To be concluded)