#VoxPopuli: The Reality of Privilege
by Danela Dagdag
“Addict caught and eliminated.”
“Crime rates drop.”
“The economy experiences a boom.”
Most of us are rejoicing because we hear these phrases today. For us living in the metro, basking in the safety of our homes and enjoying the luxuries we have, nothing seems to have changed. Aside from the inflation rate that barely affected us, the programs that have barely touched us, and the realities that have barely caught up with us, everything seems the same. We eat three full meals a day, enjoy the company of our loved ones, and relish the life that we have been granted.
How lucky. We should really be rejoicing. After all, we are not the actual targets of our current society.
At some point in our lives, we have wished that our situation was better. We have wished that we were living in the perfect country, or at least an ideal one. One where trains weren’t always at risk of breaking down. One where poverty did not exist and wreak havoc to the lives of the masses. One where we would not have to worry about preys stalking us as we walk around the deceivingly safe streets at night. And so, when we were presented with the embodiment of our wishes two years ago, we gladly supported it and its promises and practically paved its way to power. We were so caught up in wanting our ideal country to become a reality that we did not consider what it would cost us. Little did we realize that it would be our fellow countrymen.
“Adik nanlaban, pinaslang.”
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This is the reality that we live in today. Even the slightest resistance becomes a reason for the police to take someone’s life. We know, based on our morals, that this is not right, but two years into this program had unfortunately desensitized us. We no longer flinch when we witness a dead body on our television screens. We no longer feel immense anger when we hear of another addition to the death count.
We no longer sympathize with those who have lost their loved ones in this animalistic reality. Because there are too many. Too many to count.
“Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives.”
These were the very words he said in his last State of the Nation Address. These were the very words he mentioned to defend the need for the war on drugs. Ironically, two years into his regime, his war has claimed over 20,000 lives. Lives who have become mere statistics. Data points to be plotted. Trends to be observed. And in a few years, after his reign ends, mere events to be filed away in a disregarded pile of papers.
But why does this ever growing number cease to concern us? Why do we continue to endure our day to day lives as if nothing wrong is happening just a few streets away? Why do we act like numerous countrymen are not perishing just outside our subdivision gates?
We do this because we are privileged.
We saunter in the wonder of our privileges, untouched by reality. None of our family members have died because of the drug war. None of us have forgone a meal because we could not afford it. None of us can truly comprehend what our countrymen face. None of us do because we live in a reality disconnected with the reality that others have to endure. It truly is saddening how separated we are with those who live just a few streets away. How detached we are with the sorrows that they experience day after day.
The problem with us, the privileged ones, is that we are too afraid of losing what we have that we cannot imagine giving it up for those who do not have anything. And so, even if we possess the abilities and the resources to reach out and shed light on their current situation, we choose not to do so. Essentially, we are forced to cower in fear of becoming a target. And this is exactly what he is counting on to continue his reign: our fear of losing everything when we sacrifice ourselves for others.
It is time that we wake up and see the world around us. The world outside our high rise buildings, our tinted car windows, and rose colored glasses.
We have to stop pretending that everything is acceptable when we know that it is not. We know what the last two years have brought to our country, and we know what the next four years holds for us. When he promised that his war would exterminate the country’s evil, we thought that the masses would be granted safer streets and peaceful nights but take a peek and see where we are now. Instead of “addicts”, our streets are now littered with dead bodies and fear-mongering policemen.
For the past two years, our fear has brought our countrymen nothing but pain. And ultimately, if we continue to submit to this fear, he will soon be able to inflict pain not only on those who cannot afford lawyers, but also to us, who did not do anything as we hid in the ‘safe’ confines of our privileges. If we do not act in the next four years, he will be able to completely control our every move and what we once called our freedom will be lost. #
