AP Photo

The ramshackle shelter perched over the riverbank was home for an impoverished family of four. Not built to code, it was constructed with materials they scavenged in the area and by design isn’t meant to be a sturdy permanent structure. It was built on on land that could be reclaimed at anytime by the owner, government or slumlord. Because of this stressful uncertainty, it can be disassembled and rebuilt elsewhere within a day or two. So when the river swelled it was easily swept it away in seconds and this family who had been fighting to survive all their lives now faced their ultimate life and death challenge.

One does not need even an elementary education to see that the plight of the poor is due in large part because of top to bottom corruption of its leaders. In countries rich in resources, such as The Philippines, one can argue the only reason with which poverty exists is because of the greed and power hungry elite oppress the poor for their own benefit. They are very good at convincing the mostly uneducated poor they are for them during election cycles, but year after year poverty increases while the rich get richer. As the disparity increases, so too has the level of audaciousness of the politics. With a general election campaign on the horizon, politicians are all posturing to be seen as the biggest hero of those affected by the flood. In fact these are some of the same people who have spent years pilfering public money for their personal benefit. Money that should have been spent on job creation and safe public housing for the poor instead provides a wealthy lifestyle for even the lowest level government official, thus preventing this Filipino family from attaining any kind of chance to escape their condemned economic (and geographic) disadvantage.

Instead of fleeing their doomed situation, the family stayed out of fear that their few but precious belongings would be either stolen or lost in the storm. Now it was too late to escape as a mountain of water came from upstream with a brutal vengeance. The house was decimated in a brief moment with just enough time for the mother, father and their young son and daughter to escape. They were not however out of danger. The fierce current would not allow the father to coral his family together and though he and his wife so desperately tried, the could not hold onto their children. For a close knit family who had been surviving poverty all these years, this ultimate struggle of life and death would be now be fought individually. The children quickly disappeared but hope was not yet gone. The daughter waged a good fight and managed to cling to a tree limb. But her hair somehow became entangled in a branch and when the flood level rose even higher she eventually drowned. The boy, who having lived next to a river must have had some swimming skills, was found dead several kilometers away.

As the relief efforts are in full swing and the country begins to recover it is highly doubtful the ones responsible for so many deaths will be brought to justice. What may be worse however is they likely won’t suffer much anguish, guilt or shame over their uncontrollable greed. Worse still, they’ll probably find ways to skim off the rebuilding efforts in the weeks, months and years to come. For the sake of humanity, some questions must be asked to these culprits of corruption: can you live with yourself knowing your greed prevented the opportunity for thousands to have a chance to escape poverty and even death? In this writers limited Tagalog: kailan ba kayo makakaroon ng hiyat? (when will you develop a sense of shame?)

– Dan Johanson