This Week's Stories

June 1-7, 2009

The Continuing Saga of ‘Sandigan 7’, Litex-Manggahan Vendors
Today (June 1), a representative of the Market Development and Administration Department (MDAD) of Quezon City meets with leaders of the Samahang Muslim-Christian Manininda ng Litex-Manggahan (SMCMLM) – MANLABAN in a dialogue, in the continuing saga of sidewalk and ambulant vendors’ fight for recognition and justice for past abuses. How will it turn out?

This dialogue was supposed to be held at the vendors’ turf in Litex, Commonwealth Avenue, but the MDAD backed out at the last minute and acceded only to an office meeting at City Hall (2 pm). A bad sign from the get-go, yet the vendors remain hopeful.

For reference and a backgrounder on this story, as well as the vendors’ position on this issue, kindly check out the rest of this space.


“Ganito kahirap maging mahirap”
Being poor does not only denote economic hardship. It also means being frustratingly on the short-end of the stick on seemingly automatic, everyday services provided by the state.

Kadamay member Connie Agsangre’s six-year-old son was slapped, and then she was threatened with a bolo, by a neighborhood drunkard. Seeking help from a nearby Barangay Commonwealth outpost with fellow member and partner Michael de Guzman, they were told that they needed to shell out P80 for a ‘filing fee’ as well as ‘suporta’ (implying money for refreshments and gasoline for the vehicle) before the barangay personnel would respond to the scene.

The pair had no money and argued with the officials, but they refused to budge. After the two finally left, the barangay personnel were overheard talking: “Tulungan na kaya natin.” “Eh wala naming pera eh, hayaan na natin.”

When odds are this stacked upon this country’s urban poor, who not only have to contend with hunger but with a corrupt, self-serving bureaucracy that could not be counted upon for the most basic of services, no wonder most couldn’t find their way out of the “vicious cycle.”

For this story, please contact de Guzman at 0929.506.1753.


ABAKADA ng Krisis
As the new school year opens, Kadamay expresses its concern at the DepEd’s seeming unpreparedness to face the effects of unprecedented crisis upon poor students and their parents, saying that the agency would be “in for a surprise.”

“Aside from a few token measures, the DepEd seems to have approached this coming school year as it had any other,” information officer Jon Vincent Marin said. “Whether this is part of the whole administration’s tone of downplaying the effects of crisis we are not sure, but the agency is sure to be in for a major surprise.”

Marin identified six major indicators that they will be watching as the school year rolls by, and that, judging by the DepEd’s actions the few past weeks, they contend that the agency would be hard-pressed to counteract. The group called it ‘ABAKADA’ ng krisis:

A – Aral at trabaho, pagsasabayin ng higit na maraming mag-aaral
B – Baba ng kalidad ng edukasyon, bunsod ng paglobo ng bilang ng mga lumipat sa pampublikong paaralan
K – Kawalan at kakulangan ng panustos sa pagpasok
D – Dami ng dropout
E – Enrollment, bababa
G – Gutom at malnutrisyon ng mga mag-aaral. ##

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For details, please contact Jon Vincent Marin, Kadamay Information Officer, at 0910.975.7660.