God bless the poor God bless the victims of injustice

I was touched by the article of Father Shay Cullen entitled, Helping others directs us on our path to happiness (Mabuhay, June 10), especially where he wrote, “To believe in justice, but not to help victims is hypocrisy.”

In other words, intelligence is nothing unless it is exercised and there is no point teaching about charity but not wanting to help the needy.

In using the examples of fruit we say, “ It looks good outside, but inside is rotten.” These are only few examples of the hypocrisy of our surroundings.

Father Cullen mentions some Christian qualities like “living our lives for others is the highest form of love that Jesus of Nazareth and other great heroes practiced.”

For me, most of all, government officials have always had the chance to perform acts of love towards other people, especially the poor, the sick, the marginalized and so on.

They are in the position and in a state of grace where the courage to serve and privilege of doing such influential acts of kindness and goodness towards their constituents is expected.

If only those who are in the state of responsibility would practice their duties faithfully, equally and with loyalty, certainly there would be no one suffering from hunger, marginalization and discrimination between the poor and the rich.

However, more often than not, they are given more chances to express their love through the calamities that strike our country, like the floods, typhoons, sickness and human abuse.

it is sad to say that most of them were not able to fulfill their role of being committed servants of their country, as government officials or local officials in towns are corrupted by the dazzle of the money that was supposed to be given to victims of calamities.

The poor people are always the victims who lack courage and strength to fight for their rights.

Personally, I witnessed this situation in the Philippines in our place a few years ago. Our place was hit by typhoon Frank and many houses collapsed and many plantations were swept away by the flood.

One victim of the calamity is my brother. He and others were promised 10000 pesos <US 1,850> each by the government to rebuild their houses.

For the record, they were asked to come to the municipal hall of to write their names as proof that they were the victims that would receive such amount.

However, months and years have passed, but they have not received anything. Now it is forgotten. Who was to be blamed? Cheating is really an extremely disgusting attitude especially when coming from officials of the country.

The poor victims of the calamity were victimized by our own government officials by succumbing to corruption for their own benefit.

It is so sad for the poor. It is so shameful for the heartless. Who will care for our plight? No one, except our fellow poor, the victims. God bless the victims of calamities and injustice.

The senatorial election is coming up in the Philippines. It is our right and privilege to vote wisely. We can choose the one whom we think respond to the needs of our society.

Surely we Filipinos have some idea who among them is a worthy instrument of our development and worthy of our previous vote, who will carry out their obligations with credibility and give concern to the plight of the Filipino migrant workers.