Former President Joseph Estrada attended yesterday the wake of a woman who killed herself and her three children due to extreme poverty in Magdalena, Laguna.
Estrada said he was deeply affected by the news that the victim, Janeth Ponce forced her three children to drink liquid toilet bowl cleaner after midnight Monday before drinking the poison herself.
Ponce and her three children were rushed to the hospital where the three children were declared dead on arrival.
She passed away shortly afterwards.
“This will not happen if the government is sincerely doing its job. This is the worst incident that showed Filipinos are starving due to poverty. I have been in public office for over 30 years. Never have I seen such desperation arise out of poverty, where a mother would kill her children and herself. This is a real tragedy,” Estrada said.
Estrada’s father hails from Laguna.
He received calls and reports from several residents of Laguna, including Rep. Benjie Agarao.
For their part, officials of the United Opposition led by its spokesman Adel Tamano seeks the immediate pullout of the Arroyo administration’s posters “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran.”
Tamano said these posters are the height of the Arroyo administration’s insensitivity to the real plight of the poor Filipino people.
“Take down GMA’s posters that say Ramdam ang Kaularan. When you have mothers killing themselves and their children because of extreme poverty, these posters are the epitome of bad taste and lack of empathy. Is it not a tragedy that the money used for those useless posters could have fed this poor family? Their deaths should make this administration realize that its vaunted economic gains are not reaching the masses and that no amount of propaganda will ever be able to address our very real problems of poverty and corruption,” Tamano said.
Makati Rep. Abby Binay said there is a big discrepancy between what the administration says and what the masses have to say.
“It appears that the doleouts and subsidies that the government proclaims to be giving to the poor are not really trickling down to those who need it,” Binay said.
San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito, UNO national capital region secretary general, said the incident shows the real picture of the country.
“That is the real picture of the country’s state today, the opposite of GMA’s pronouncements that the economy is doing well.”
“Billboards with Gloria’s face proclaiming Ramdam ang Kaunlaran should be replaced with Ramdam ang Kahirapan,” Ejercito said.