Squatters

In metro Manila alone, an estimated 4 million Filipinos live in squatter areas- locations where no one else wants to live; these people are among the poorest in the country. In an eager climb to get out of their situation, rural families often move to cities in search of a new life. Since most of them are empty-handed, they often settle on land they don't own.

As it is for most families in the province, it seems like an exodus to leave hardship behind. In the hope of finding new opportunities and a brighter future, they gamble their lives by migrating to the cities. For them, cities are the havens of relief and opportunity. Many don?t know that they are entering like prey in an urban jungle; their dreams will be reduced to nothing but a mirage of hope.

Their current situation in the provinces is bleak. Most communities living in these areas are very backward in every sense possible. Education is a barrier, only a fraction makes it to college. Even fewer are able to finish. The results are most of them having to settle for unskilled or manual labor. Health is also a common problem. Adequate healthcare and medical services are either unaffordable or unavailable in their communities. Since many families rely on farming (usually a low-income occupation in the Philippines), their incomes are not enough to cover many basic needs and expenses. In addition, most of these families have an average of 5-6 children, thus taxing a bigger burden out of the parents.

The metropolis is their ticket for a better future, or so it seems. It has been imprinted in their minds that life in the city is more fruitful. They think life is easier sustained in the cities than it is in their pristine homelands. A sense of inferiority, and a colonial mentality accented by centuries of various foreign rule, drive them to leave their farmlands or fisheries behind to head for the big jungle of glass and steel that gleams in the horizon. This philosophy is also reinforced through an inborn human flaw of greed.

Once inside the borders of city life, they are again plunged into hardship, a plight often times much worse than their lives were in the province. Their dreams will fade into dust, like a house of cards blown away by the sandstorms of reality.

Living alongside the higher class and wealthy scions of the country, they find themselves abused and locked out. Most of them are treated as animals, forced to work so their rich employers can hoard more wealth. In the end, they're shunned as if they had the plague running through their veins. Equipped with poor education, they can only occupy the smallest and the simplest of jobs. In turn, their work turns out the smallest and simplest of salaries. These meager finances are the very ones that attempt to support a family of 5-6 children in a place where resources and human necessities are unbelievably expensive.

What makes things worse is that many of these people are left in darkness because of their suffering and poverty. The radicals tend to harbor hatred towards those who dwell in society?s middle class and beyond. They think that their suffering was brought about by the rich and powerful. For them, their poverty is the direct fault of the wealthy and affluent. While the abusive greed of some rich men does contribute to the depression in their lives, this hatred is usually grounded on nothing. On the contrary, some wealthy families even go out of their way in an attempt to help the urban poor through donations, fundraising, and social activities.

Nobody can really be blamed for all this suffering and poverty. There is no person or institution that can be held responsible for all this hardship. Sometimes, the squatters themselves are too lazy to earn a living, too proud to accept their status in life, and too blinded in their attempts to be city dwellers. Pride keeps them from returning to the countryside provinces. There are other also times when those in power abuse their strength to capitalize on the weakness of these squatters. The need for work forces them to shoulder the lashes of abusive employers so they can put food on the table and clothes on their backs. When these people voice out their needs and complaints, their cries just land on deaf ears.

There is no wonder solution for this problem. What can be commonly drawn though, before anything, is an understanding ? an understanding of the situation and an understanding of these people. This entails, above all, an ear that listens and a heart that cares.