Destitute mother's parricide & suicide: Poverty &

despondency under bogus President Arroyo

by Jesusa Bernardo
(First published on Newsvine, September 9, 2008 EDT)

Manila - A jobless Filipino mother killed her three children Tuesday by

forcing them to drink liquid toilet cleaner before taking her own life,
police said. Police said poverty apparently drove Janeth Ponce, 32, to
kill her children, ages 4, 3 and 2, in their house in Laguna province
south of Manila.
-The Earth Times, Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:45:06 GMT

I've lived through all four decades, including during the time of Ferdinand
Marcos' dictatorship, but suicides due to poverty were little known of until
the controversial presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Only in November 2007, 11-year-old Mariannet Amper hanged herself in their

shanty in desperation over her family's abject poverty. These two cases
hugged the headlines because juveniles are involved, but suicides that
included only adult Filipinos have been reported--sporadically but occurring
more often nonetheless.

To the best of my memory, the more than rare frequency of poverty-driven

suicides began being reported only after the EDSA 2 coup d’état that
deposed the constitutionally elected President Joseph Estrada to install the
elite-backed Arroyo in 2001. Survey studies after survey researches--both
local and international--have shown Arroyo's presidency as most inimical to
the Filipinos. Her administration has also registered the highest levels of
overall hunger, or "Total Hunger," in nearly a decade since the SWS surveys
on hunger began. She is also viewed as the most unpopular and "Most
Corrupt" president in the history of the Southeast Asian country since the
time of Marcos based on the poll researches of both the SWS and Pulse Asia
survey institutions.
Then Vice-President Arroyo was able to seize the presidency through the so-
called "EDSA 2 Revolution," backed by the Catholic Church, business elites,
military elements and political oppositionists Estrada led by herself and her
husband. Based on the admission of Arroyo's husband to respected Filipino
writer Nick Joaquin, the Arroyos bought and distributed "millions" of print
material and used mass texting to assemble "people power" in the streets of
EDSA as part of what is now viewed as a planned conspiracy to grab power,

These suicides ghastly showcase the sufferings of the Filipino masses gone
to desperation level. The "bogus" administration of Arroyo (dubbed so due to
her 2001 power grab and the 2004 electoral fraud scandal) is morally
accountable for the unprecedented hunger and poverty in the country. The
funds of the Philippine treasury and the energies of her contested
administration have practically all been directed towards keeping her
illegitimate rule instead of improving the conditions and opportunities of the
people, particularly the marginalized lot. She has proved to be an innately
self-serving "President" who has skillfully exercised "patronage politics" oiled
by dispensing pork barrel and junket favors to equally crocodilian politicians
like her.

Perhaps as much to be blamed for the obtaining despondency among the

half a million households, whose members at times are forced to do without
a single meal in a day, is the gullible mob that either unsuspectingly or
stupidly came to support EDSA 2. Thinking that it was a "spontaneous" act
founded on moral calling, they helped depose President Estrada, who had
been fierily branded as corrupt by the propaganda machinery of a power
hungry Arroyo and party. As it turned out--to the detriment of the nation--
Arroyo, who ironically laid claim to the presidency via a "revolution" for good
governance, would be the only Philippine leader to ever receive negative
satisfaction ratings, and even bested Marcos for the ignominious title of
"Most Corrupt President in Philippine History." As the "EDSA 2 gullibles" have
realized too late, Arroyo was a disguised malevolent politician who conned
them all.

To say "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa," is the least the more patriotic of
the EDSA 2 conspirators and gullibles can do. But what good would a
thousand sorry's do to the destitute families of Janeth and Mariannet and
other dead-by-suicide victims of Arroyo's administration?

__________
References:

Bowring, Philip. "Filipino Democracy Needs Stronger Institutions."

International Herald Tribune.
22 Jan. 2001. http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/01/22/edbow.t_3.php.

"Poverty-stricken Mother Kills Three Children, self in Philippines." The Earth

Times. 09
September 2008.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/230527,poverty-stricken-
mother-kills-three-children-self-in-philippines.html.
Pulse Asia. Additional Findings on Corruption-Related Issues: Most Corrupt
President in
Philippine History. October 2007.
http://pulseasia.com.ph/resources/photos/
table2_corruption_0710.gif

Pulse Asia. Pulse Asia's July 2008 Nationwide Survey on Coping with Double
Digit Inflation Rates.
July 2008. http://www.pulseasia.com.ph/pulseasia/story.asp?ID=656.

Social Weather Stations. Second Quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey:

PGMA's net rating falls to
record-low -38. 18 July 2008. http://www.sws.org.ph/pr080718.htm.

Tordesillas, Ellen. "Credit should go to Mike Arroyo". Malaya. 16 Jan. 2002.

http://malaya.com.ph/jan16/edtorde.htm.