FIRST SAY:
We are the pure and the chosen few, and all the rest are damned,
There’s room enough in hell for you—we don’t want heaven crammed.
—Old English plebeian satire as quoted by Christopher Hitchens
—o0o—
Initial perceptions linger, so that as soon as I saw the video that became viral on the Internet about this girl garbed in a high school uniform selling sampaguita garlands near the entrance to the popular Mandaluyong mall, I felt empathy and oneness with all Filipinos, young and old, who have to endure all risks in the streets just to eke out a living.
I was both impressed and inspired by the grit and determination displayed by the unidentified girl (later to be referred to as Marie Garcia by the media) in engaging the SM Megamall security guard. The mall has admitted that he was their guard, employed by their security service provider, and has since been fired.
The whole situation is pathetic: the guard had a duty to fulfill to his employers, and to the client of his employers. The girl needs to sell sampaguitas, bring home some money for her parents and siblings, and provide for her education. It was reported that she is taking up medical technology in a private college—so her old clothes did not match with her age.
To Atty. Claire Castro, the wearing of old clothes to look younger and entice people to buy sampaguita flowers to help a poor young elementary girl, is some serious demeanor that almost amounts to a crime. Such bias, from a lawyer-blogger who styles herself to uphold that which is right.
To the critics in social media who vilify the Sampaguita Girl, may I ask: is it wrong to wear old clothes when going to work, especially when they are the only clothes you have?
—o0o—
For weeks, followers of social media will still watch how the girl engaged the security guard of a popular mall in Mandaluyong City in a fight that went viral in the internet. Netizens immediately took the side of the poor girl, who was wearing a high school uniform, because she seemed so frail and helpless against the security guard with his shotgun. Although the guard just parried her blows and was obviously just implementing the mall’s policy, he became the subject of criticisms from the public, mainly because he initially confiscated and destroyed the sampaguita garlands that the girl was selling.
Poor girl, what followed her instant popularity is a barrage of negative comments and diatribe from some bloggers, even insinuating that she was part of some syndicate for “duping” the public by wearing her old HS uniform.
Yes, she is in her early 20s and is enrolled in college, taking up medical technology. She was wearing the HS uniform to look younger than she really was, and to sell more sampaguitas. The money she makes helps her pay for tuition and other school needs.
There is actually nothing wrong with wearing clothes that would make you look younger, or attires that would push forward any legitimate business activity that you have, especially if a girl has few options on what to wear. Marie Garcia just had the grit and determination to pursue her studies despite her family’s poverty.
It was her mother, Mrs. Judith Garcia, who narrated to the media the sacrifices that her daughter had to bear in their day-to-day struggle to survive. The government’s dole-out programs for the poor such as the AKAP, AICS, TUPAD and others, these have not descended in their neighborhood or in their household. For a while, they got 4Ps but it did not last long.
Mrs. Garcia however said that there is one government intervention that the Sampaguita girl was able to take advantage of. It is the “Anti-No Permit, No Exam Act” which allows students to take school examinations despite their unsettled financial obligations. Under the law, disadvantaged students with unpaid tuition and other school fees may take examinations. Due to poverty, the girl vendor is sometimes late in paying her tuition, but because of this law, the private school where she studies had to accommodate her during final exams. The school has to abide by the Revilla Law.
In the “Anti-No Permit, No Exam Act” (RA No. 11984), which was principally authored by Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, all private and public educational institutions are required to accommodate and allow disadvantaged students to take the scheduled periodic and final examinations. This covers basic education (K to 12), higher education, and technical-vocational institutions.
This leads us to thinking: if one is determined enough, any young Filipino student browsing online could discover little-known government projects and programs that support their quest for knowledge. One is the “Anti-No Permit, No Exam Act.” Another example is the educational assistance that is given by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) under General Manager Mel Robles.
The PCSO has announced in one of its websites that thousands of elementary, high school and college students have benefitted from educational assistance that the PCSO gives to every applicant, provided that they are legitimately enrolled and are able to meet simple requirements such as school ID, photos, enrollment forms, etc. The PCSO issues the checks not to the students or their parents, but directly to the schools.