I’m one of the thousands of poor and sick Filipinos who go to the Senate in Pasay City to request medical and cash assistance from our honorable senators who have so much to share with and give to their poor constituents because of their yearly P200 million pork barrel, which is taken from tax collections.
I went to the Senate with a letter of request and with documents, medical records and other papers required by the good senators.
To the disappointment of most of us who went there for such help, we were treated like dirt and garbage. We were made to join a long line of people just to submit the requirements for our request for assistance to a single public assistance unit that handled requests for all 23 senators. The unit can only interview 20 persons in one single day, without necessarily resolving a request. Senators are intelligent and honorable persons and are supposed to be the “conscience of the people.” But gone are the glory days of the Senate when people from all walks of life, especially the needy asking for assistance, were treated like “bosses” by senators. People then could go directly to the senators and tell them their problems, and then go home smiling.
These days, in the garrison-like Senate, the poor, needy and sick people are restricted to a basketball court where they wait for their turn, rain or shine; and then made to come back almost daily for follow-up without getting their request. Thus, the horse is dead before the feed gets to him.
Do Pia and Allan Cayetano, Tito Sotto, Teofisto Guingona III and other honorable senators, who are well-secured inside their air-conditioned rooms maintained with the taxpayers’ money, know the sufferings of these poor people?
Due to weak physical condition and eyesight, and tired of and fed up with going back to the Senate, I just sent my request letter with the required documents by registered mail. Until now, no action has been taken by the concerned senators.
—RODOLFO DARWIN,
Bagbag, Novaliches,
Quezon City