OWS ‘was bound to happen’

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was bound to happen. “Rallies vs corporate greed surge the world.” (Inquirer, 10/17/11) Many of us knew the gap between those who have much, much more and those who have very much less cannot continue to widen since it could only lead to disastrous results. As someone said, “Only a society that is socially just, that endeavors to be more and more just, has reason for existence; that a society that is not just on the social plane and does not aim at becoming such, endangers its future.”

This exactly is what is happening now in the United States, Europe, South America  and elsewhere—where groups of people continue to congregate in unity and protest, particularly against corporate greed, resulting in a few amassing so much wealth, power and influence, pushing the vast majority to poverty and want.

Perceptive UP Prof. Leonor Briones warns our leaders and big business not to be complacent since worldwide protests could engulf all of us. This, in the face of our still shaky situation, the result of our low productivity, growing unemployment, low level of income of the majority, series of natural disasters and, yes, the uncaring attitude of most of our leaders, not to mention our many tainted institutions.

Too much for too few, too little for so many. If this situation continues, the inevitable result would be so much imbalance for society’s good. It is time to mitigate this risky imbalance and have a little more humanity.

If this cannot take place voluntarily, perhaps the legislature should now seriously consider the adoption of a reasonable profit-sharing scheme we unsuccessfully pushed for during the 8th Congress. Business should now accept that profits should be equitably shared with those who, in the first place, make profits possible. This should help lessen the disparity between the very rich and the many who work for them.

The Supreme Court could also take another look at one of the biggest issues still pending before it—the coco levy controversy. This affects the lives of coconut farmers and their families which the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC)—the government agency tasked to wipe out poverty among our people—considers as the “poorest among the poor and the most socially insecure sector of society.” Recovery of the levy assets (bulk of which are the 24-percent and 20-percent SMC shares) when liquidated, could allocate yearly interest earnings for the livelihood concerns of farmers in each of our 20,000 or so coconut-producing barangays nationwide. This should help uplift the lives of easily one-fourth of our people. They have waited for more than 30 years. Justice should now be served to them.

Other urgent “gap-reducing” measures should now be taken, remembering President Manuel Quezon’s injunction that “we do not live for ourselves alone. We are part of society to which we all owe definite responsibilities.”

—OSCAR F. SANTOS,

Coconut Industry Reform (COIR) Movement Inc., [email protected]