And social justice for all - A VOICE FROM AMERICA by Ernie D. Delfin

I often remember the pungent first lines of this immortal poem which Edwin Markham wrote after seeing the painting of Millet that disturbed but inspired him to write about the suffering and exploitation of the oppressed.

Another quote that I savor is: "Those who have less in life should have more in law," by the most loved president of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay, who did not finish his term when he died in a plane crash on March 17, 1957.

From President Lincoln to President Magsaysay, from Pope John XXIII to Gandhi, from Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela – they all contributed to the war against social injustice. They are my heroes since I was in high school.

I still see or read about the ugly head of injustice even after living in America for a quarter of a century. For instance, millions of migrant farm workers, garment workers and janitors are not being paid just and fair wages. The American Indians are now relegated to reservations where there is high unemployment. Many day-time laborers, especially the undocumented aliens (those without the coveted US green card), patiently wait to be picked up at street corners to do menial jobs that nobody wants and are often paid unconscionable low wages.

Like in Metro Manila, Metropolitan Los Angeles or New York has its slums and homeless population. There are hundreds of homeless people who sleep in the streets of South Central Los Angeles, which is just about a mile from the magnificent Los Angeles Cathedral of the Catholic Church. In El Paso, Texas, which is separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande, the socio-economic difference between the two countries is night and day. The higher standard of living on the US side is the number one reason Mexicans cross the border by legal or illegal means. We can often measure the quality or standard of life of one country by simply monitoring how many people come into the country vis a vis those moving out. That’s why many Filipinos seek greener pastures in progressive countries like the United States, Canada, Europe or the Middle East.

Giving in to an insistent inner voice to do something about this human inequity and social injustice, I joined our Saints Simon and Jude Catholic School Social Justice Ministry’s Just Faith Program last summer.

This Catholic group, consisting of all white Americans except for me (the only Asian), undergoes a serious study that lasts for nine months. We have weekly programs of intensive readings, discussions and sharing of many issues about social justice issues in the world. During the course, we would undergo several weekend retreats, field trips and profound discussions of dozens of books, such as Doing Just Faith (authored by Jesuit priest and lawyer Fred Kammer), Rich Christian (Ronald J. Sider), Following Christ in a Consumer Society (John F. Kavanaugh), Vultures & Butterflies (Susan Classen) Reflections on Simplicity ( Elaine Prevallet) Gandhi the Man( Eknath Easwaran) Dismantling Racism (Joseph Barndt) Christianity & Feminism in Conservation (Regina A. Coll) Unexpected News (Robert McAfee Brown) Amazing Grace (Jonathan Kozol) Beyond Violence (Gerald A. Vanderhaar) and Prophetic Imagination (Walter Brueggemann). We also watch and then discuss videos that depict many social issues of the world. Our objective is to learn, see, analyze and then act to reduce social injustice in our communities. We have resolved to look at issues globally but we will act locally.

After several of these weekly meetings, I’ve learned that just faith issues and/or social injustice all over the world are overwhelming. I also feel that the world can still be made a better place as many dedicated people – the missionaries, social workers, Christian lay workers, priests and nuns – work passionately to alleviate the pangs of social injustice. Unsung heroes in many countries, especially the Third World, and people of different color, nationality and creed are doing various things that are not headlined in the newspapers.

Institutionalized social injustice is the most difficult to eradicate. For instance, slavery in America or apartheid in South Africa took many decades to outlaw and eradicate. But with dedicated and charismatic leaders led by Lincoln and Mandela, slavery and apartheid are now things of the past. Socio-economic problems in the Philippines, Mexico and other Latin American countries have some direct correlation to institutionalized government policies whereby the marginalized sector of the population is doomed to be poor from birth till death. With their waking hours devoted to working just to earn money for basic necessities, the very poor seldom have the opportunity to acquire a decent education which is still the best weapon against human bondage (slavery) and social injustice. If the children of the poor never get educated, the vicious circle continues and they are never given the chance to taste true freedom nor see the light at the end of the darkest tunnel.

From where I stand 10,000 miles away from my homeland, I dare say, social injustice in the Philippines is deeply rooted in a flawed system (another cultural flaw?) of an apartheid-like society perpetuated by the rich and powerful. Since the Spanish regime, it is common knowledge that the rich have become richer while the poor have become poorer. The rich own the tools of production and their wealth has compounded because their seeds (grains) were planted in the soil whereas the grains (seeds) of the poor were cooked and eaten!

Very often, the rich enter politics and are able to protect their vested interests and maintain the socio-economic-political status quo. Worse, unscrupulous people enter politics or occupy positions of power to enrich themselves at the expense of the common tao (man). That leaves Juan dela Cruz crumbs in the economic cycle. Being powerless, he has no voice in the administration of government policies that might alter his circumstance. In short, the rich and powerful and the politicians are major sources of Philippine social injustice and its many related socio-economic problems.

What then is the solution? We must empower the poor but HOW? Without radically changing the system, it will probably take a thousand years to effect a substantial change. As it is now, it is not only preposterous but utterly insane to expect a different result if things remain the same way as they were in the last 100 years.

The Philippines today, after 100 years of its so-called independence, is still in search of her (lost?) soul as one nation. (Was the Philippines ever a nation? This is another controversial topic.) It can be (re) discovered by working double time to narrow, or at least stop the widening chasm between the haves and have-nots, between the oligarchs or bureaucRATS and the marginalized sector. The government leaders must have the political will to remove the roots that fertilize the growth of more Payatas disasters and the continued existence of Smokey Mountains. The rich and powerful cannot continue to erect walls to hide the poverty that surrounds them.

In our social justice ministry, we are reminded that man is supposed to be stewards of God’s creation. In our Ilocano dialect, I still remember a very profound saying, Ti sanikua ket pagsusublatan laeng (Wealth is just transferred from one hand to another). A lawyer friend of mine, Louie Lopez of Downey, California, even has a Christian definition of MONEY: Money Owned Not Eternally Yours. If only more people really believe and practice that!

Responsible citizenship starts in every home. Children must have good role models to follow. The irony, however, is that there seems to be a dearth of role models in the Philippines. There is no moral outrage over wealth that is obviously acquired via illegal or immoral ways, especially among politicians and their cronies. A person who is not rich before he enters the political arena will, in a very short time, be able to display in a very ostentatious manner, his newly acquired wealth – from the car he drives to his mansion to his foreign travels with his family or queridas or kabits. Where will the Filipino children, who are the future leaders of the country, get their values? The sad part is that these children might be living with the same immoral liders or corrupt politicians in the same house!

The heart of social injustice has been institutionalized and it takes the outrage of all decent Filipinos to uproot it. The greatest example of injustice today is the long-standing government case against the ill-gotten Marcos wealth that has been going on for almost 20 years. The justice system of the Philippines stinks. Money buys justice and judges!

In grade school, we were told that justice delayed is justice denied. To this date, we have yet to see the punishment (and remorse?) of the Marcoses. Where in the world did they get all their wealth? How much money can a person or family really need? How much is enough? Their greed and attachment to wealth are beyond my comprehension.

Who have been imprisoned in the Philippines because of graft and corruption? In other countries, like Indonesia, or Japan, or in the United States, corrupt politicians are charged, punished or imprisoned. But in the Philippines, they are idolized! The most (in)famous material girl has the temerity and "pride" to treat her cohorts and blind followers at her lavish 70th(?) birthday at the Manila Hotel. The Marcos family has no shame. Worse is the fact that Filipino people condone them and in many ways, even idolize them! Filipinos, regain your self-respect and wake up from your deep slumber!

If you don’t, you will be buried alive in more Payatas social land mines.

Quo vadis, Filipinos?

Lastly, let me leave my readers with food for thought taken from the writings of Mahatma Gandhi: "There are seven sins in the world – wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice and politics without principles."

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The writer can be reached at: [email protected] or [email protected] and readers can visit his websites: http://www.progressivetimes.com or http://www.katipunan-usa.org.