Is overconcern deliberate or unintended?

Two separate fires destroyed homes and affected over a hundred families in Pasig and Tondo in the third week of June. We’ve all seen fires destroy homes and displace families over the years. This is not a new phenomenon.

The only new “phenomenon,” if you can call it such, is this: President Aquino rarely visiting tragedies that affect the poor and ordinary citizens of the Philippines but immediately falling over himself after an explosion destroyed a posh condominium in an upscale district.

I am referring to the blast that destroyed Two Serendra some weeks ago. Right after the blast, President Aquino was seen at the site to check on the matter and observe the situation. He even brought some members of his Cabinet, most notably Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

Definitely they were a sight to behold: two of the most powerful men in the Philippines monitoring hands-on an incident involving a condominium of the rich, but apparently so distant or far removed mentally from the fires that destroyed the homes of hundreds of poor Filipinos.

Is overconcern for the rich and disregard for the poor a conscious choice? Or is it instinctive? Unintended?

—ELISE DEE,

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