Insulting, out-of-touch, insensitive.
Trade and Industry Secretary Maria Cristina Roque’s insistent, confident assertion that P500 is enough for one family to celebrate a simple Noche Buena is a slap in the face for many Filipinos who are struggling to provide for their families in the face of recent calamities.
The awful truth is that even the P600 minimum wage that has been legislated in the Calabarzon region last October is still barely enough to cover a family’s basic expenses – food, clothing, shelter – not to mention all the little expenses of day-to-day living.
Never mind the fact that many residents here in Laguna province are still reeling from the effects of the natural calamities that struck Luzon in past months.
And, as we must point out again and again, these natural calamities were exacerbated by gargantuan greed and corruption among government officials who are now clearly about to get absolved for their crimes against the nation (disappointing, but never surprising).
It’s clear that government officials have abdicated their mandate to promote the welfare of the public through assuring them of decent living and are instead promoting “self-sacrifice” through limiting their wants – when the ordinary workingman is still barely making do on bare essentials!
This latest episode from the DTI is a callback from the “let them eat cake” phrase allegedly uttered by the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, in the 1700’s upon being told that the peasants had no bread. (Of course, history notes what happened after that: most of France’s nobility were guillotined by a public fed up with an insensitive aristocracy.)
Roque’s assertion only serves to fan the flames of anger among a public already outraged over corruption and greed in public governance.
Such statements have toppled governments in the past – can we see a similar scenario here in the Philippines?
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