Don’t wait for people to beg for help, gov’t told

CALACA, Batangas—The government should not wait for impoverished citizens to beg for help before channeling resources to them, presidential candidate Grace Poe said on Friday.

Speaking in a rally in this town, the senator said whatever was the reason for the North Cotabato farmers’ decision to take to the streets in Kidapawan City last week, it was clear that many Filipinos were going hungry.

The situation is “unacceptable,” Poe said.

“The government itself should go to the people to help them,” she said.

The Aquino administration has been criticized for inaction after the police dispersal of drought-hit farmers calling for government aid.

Three farmers were shot dead during the dispersal.

Recalling a lesson from her father, the late movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., Poe said he once told her that it is not easy for people to admit they need help.

“According to my father, one of the hardest things for a person to do is to admit that he has nothing left, that he needs help, because he has to swallow his pride to come to you. Would you wait for a person to resort to begging from you?” she said.

She said her father, who ran for President in 2004 but lost the election, believed the government’s resources should be available to all.

In a separate interview, Poe said the Kidapawan farmers would not have taken their problems to the streets had the government given them enough support, especially for irrigation.

As for what President Aquino should have done, she said people may be waiting for him, as the country’s leader, to sympathize with or show compassion for the farmers.

As for her, a woman, her sympathy would be more evident in such a situation, she said.

But she added that she would not want the situation to reach the point where she would have to commiserate with suffering people who had to resort to begging.

She said she would send assistance to them at the start.

“The country has the means and the resources. Why would we wait for our citizens to reach the point of desperation before we help them?” she said.

Poe also said that street protests should be respected, as such mass actions underscore the essence of democracy.