When communities pick up the slack

By Joshua Corcuera

 

Last week, there was some encouraging news here in Metro Manila, where COVID-19 cases are surging through the roof despite two weeks of strict lockdown. A woman in Maginhawa, Quezon City put up food, canned goods, and other essential items in a small bamboo cart for people to take from and add to, this has been called as the Maginhawa Community Pantry. The initiative was later copied by several places in the capital region showing that kindness still exists amid a public health crisis. Regardless of scale, this act of humility obviously reminds us that we can rely on one another during times of immense hardship. However positive, this community pantry came into existence partly because of one thing: government inaction. This is, at least, what the woman who initiated the project claimed.

Patreng Non, the woman who started the said makeshift pantry in her neighborhood, was quoted by local media saying “pagod na akong magreklamo, pagod na ako sa inaction.” As a result, she filled the gaps in the country’s fight against the pandemic by helping financially struggling individuals through her community pantry. The principle of the pantry is simple, magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. For instance, if someone cannot afford to buy rice or bread or similar goods, they can get some from the community pantry according to their needs. On the other hand, if someone has a surplus or excess of certain goods, they are encouraged to contribute so they could help those in dire need of essential goods in these trying times.

From this generous initiative which went viral, we can still see that the spirit of bayanihan is alive in the Philippines even if we are living in modern and polarized times. Many cynics and critics claimed that the spirit of goodwill and generosity is dying in our generation, but this recent community pantry suggests otherwise. Kindness still exists, kindness still prevails, no matter how cruel our trials and tribulations are at present. However, we have to acknowledge that such initiative is difficult to sustain in the long-term and is seen by many to end in just a short time, perhaps in a month or two or in several months. Still, those who are behind on such projects deserve credit for contributing largely especially that it is risky to interact with other people due to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases. As a matter of fact, those who are behind the community pantry are not obliged to do such initiative because they are mere concerned citizens who wanted to do something to alleviate our country’s dire situation.

Altogether, the community pantry that went viral last week revealed that kindness still exists in our society. And, in the future, kindness would continue to exist in some form or another. More importantly, when communities do something which they are not obliged to do so in the first place, it is imperative for the-powers-that-be to have a sense of urgency on doing their jobs which is to restore normalcy as soon as possible. In fact, it should have been done a long time ago.