Of Juan and Pedro

I read a social media Item that brought me to realize an evolving policy which has the tendency to affect society rather disturbingly. This internet posting that i viewed was less in linguistic exquisiteness but its emotional outpouring outlined serious societal restructuring. I may not be a social engineer myself but the foundation of my little background in Political Law, having taught the subject for about four decades, is vigorously challenged. There is an aspect of the social justice provision of our constitution, previously imperceptible, at least to me, that is unfolding.

I want to share my humble understanding of this internet story more for its philosophical impact than its entertainment value. It is about two persons, Juan and Pedro. Juan, for reasons not revealed by the originator of the story, is a poor man. He is jobless and with no known livelihood, he has built his home on somebody else’s property.  As an informal settler without visible means of income, he does not pay any tax. If I were to use the term employed in recent government pronouncements, Juan is among “the poorest of the poor”.

Few administrations ago, the state social services listed Juan as a beneficiary of government aid. That act was justified by Laurel’s espousal of social justice. My suspicion that it was a master stroke of a politician’s mind to coral votes was thus overwhelmed by the legal dictum that those who have less in life must have more in law. To sustain Juan’s unproductiveness, tax money has since been given him. All these years, he receives monthly pensions, in cold cash. It is argued that this monetary dole out can help him more to seek economic growth than just provide daily meals.

Pedro, on the other hand, is a striver. The many among his kind rise even ahead of the sun to work and indeed, they tirelessly toil every day. They, Pedro and his ilk, are not indolent nor ashamed to tackle any job to earn a decent living. From their own sweat, they generate the fund with which to build their homes, educate their children, clothe and feed them. The solitary complaint we hear from them refers to their aching muscles. But, it must be highlighted that Pedro and company support their government by paying their taxes religiously. In most cases, they get their pay envelopes only after taxes have been withheld.

Because he is productive and he is income generating, Pedro does not get any monetary assistance from the government of the kind Juan receives. In fact, from the taxes that Pedro, the industrious laborer pays, the government allocates the money to give to Juan. This is a situation that we have either consciously tolerated or generously taken for granted.

Came CoViD 19, an economic equalizer of sort. Pedro is, like jobless Juan, without work. Pedro is forced to stay idle, the condition that Juan cherishes. Both of them have mouths to feed. Government continues to give cash assistance regularly to Juan because he is among “the poorest of the poor” yet has not found a definitive way to help Pedro, who for reasons not of his own, has also become “poor”. The speed with which government helps Juan diametrically contrasts to the reported delay in coming to the aid of Pedro. Are we not instilling in the mind of Pedro to be as indolent and unproductive as Juan? If that mental frame develops, our national economy will suffer exponentially from disasters, other than CoViD 19.