GMA should be grateful she’s not a poor patient

A TAXI driver said that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s state of illness is karma. “Now she is paying for what she did to our country. Many of us poor have been suffering, yet we cannot even afford to buy paracetamol.”

I don’t think karma best explains GMA’s suffering. Otherwise, the corrupt, the rich, the exploiter and the oppressor could as well just answer back and tell the poor, “Oh, you are dying of hunger because you have sinned.”

Indeed, it is very unfortunate that in a land long under foreign yoke, dominated by a powerful elite and buffeted by corruption, the poor majority are made to suffer for the sins of a very few.

Like every Filipino, GMA deserves to get medical attention and services. After all, “God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45) But in fact, life has been good to her despite her illness. She is being treated in one of the best hospitals in the country. Besides, she has also highly paid lawyers and spokespersons to defend her from public brickbats.

We do want her to regain her health so that she can present her side on the alleged election fraud, government corruption and human rights violations during her illegitimate presidency. The billions of pesos lost to corruption could have been used for social services like health, education, efficient and cheap public transport system, communications and housing. As usual, it is the poorest who are the direct victims of corruption.

“Sana hindi ninyo maranasan ang pagkaitan ng karapatan na pinoprotektahan ng saligang batas,” Elena Bautista-Horn, GMA’s spokesperson told GMA’s detractors. But, of course, she must be aware that long before her boss got sick, the taxi driver and poor Filipinos like him have been denied of their constitutional rights and have been suffering due to social injustice. She must still remember Mariannet Amper, the schoolgirl who committed suicide in 2007 because of poverty. Or has she forgotten that in 2009 Filipinos were outraged when then President Arroyo and her friends spent $20,000 for a lavish dinner at a posh restaurant in New York?

GMA should really be thankful that she is still breathing. Imagine where she would be by now if she were just one of Hacienda Luisita’s poor farm workers whose take-home pay is only P9.50 a week. She should be thankful that she is not among those spending endless hours in the Philippine General Hospital waiting for their turn to be given medical attention. She should be thankful that she is not among those who have to beg PCSO for donations. The taxi driver is wrong: GMA is not cursed by karma.

The fact is, poor Filipinos are being denied social and economic justice. And we need a court that does not tolerate impunity. We need health services equally accessible to all Filipinos. We do not need the President to offer financial assistance to an already very, very rich woman.

—NORMA P. DOLLAGA,

Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan,

(Kasimbayan), [email protected]