The day we don?t have streetchildren anymore is the day we know we have finally elected the right leaders
GOING HOME CLOSE TO midnight, at a streetcorner stoplight, we were treated to a rather odd entertainment.

Street boys stood in a straight line before our car that had come to a halt, and broke into a hip-hop dance?near break-dance, in fact, had the space allowed.

Our car?s headlights oddly served as the streetchildren?s spotlight. It seemed like an impromptu performance, but not really, more like a new street gimmick. Of course, after their number, the boys ran to the cars, their palms cupped for coins.

Just when you thought the number of streetchildren couldn?t go any higher, it actually has. There are more stray children now than ever?and they swarm like flies around your car even in the wee hours (they sleep on the road, after all).

They?re everywhere?would you believe even in a fast-food drive-thru? Once, we were about to give our sandwich order before a window, when two children cut in to beg for our coins.

Competition

So, since there are more of them out there, it?s become a cutthroat competition. Selling just sampaguita or rags, or parading an infant, isn?t enough anymore. Streetchildren (under a syndicate or not) must think up gimmicks to earn your loose change. And what Pinoy can?t dance or sing? So hip-hop, it was, that night.

The sad thing is, not only are there more and more street urchins. Mendicancy is also now in the genetic DNA of the Filipino. Cupping the palm for alms seems to be one of the first movements taught the Filipino child (of a poor family, and majority of the population are poor) who then learns it so dutifully. Begging has become a national gesture.

A people?s pauper?s mindset is what the politicians thrive on, especially the local politicians, because this is what keeps the people under their thumb?the community that lives on dole-outs from politicians who raid the public?s coffers anyway for the alms. It?s a very feudal structure in the 21st century.

It is mendicancy taking the place of productivity. The people are deprived of the dignity of labor.

As the politicians corner more and more revenue sources, and corruption is so institutionalized that it becomes the mode of doing business, even the middle class?the professionals, the entrepreneurs, the businessmen?is forced to have this mendicant mindset, in a society that values political patronage over productivity.

And what rubs that in is the ubiquitous presence of tarpaulin images of town politicians. People are so poor they have no choice but to beg the town mayor or even councilor for everything in their daily lives, from jobs to an ambulance ride, to tents for wakes and funerals. The delivery of community or social services isn?t only Third World, it?s almost tribal, with the governor or mayor acting as chieftain.

Barometer

Like it or not, the overwhelmingly sad presence of streetchildren is one immediate barometer of the quality of governance. The country?s incoming leaders will be judged instantly according to the droves of stray children on the street?because it?s the first obvious sign of poverty, that and the squatters. No brainer.

We don?t mean they should be herded out of sight, like what Imelda Marcos did decades ago to cover the unsightly. No, they shouldn?t be swept into the hidden innards of the city. Rather, they should be back where they belong in any decent society?in their homes, families and schools.

You?ll know things are improving once streetchildren don?t proliferate anymore like flies. The sight of them makes anyone feel some guilt?and anger at the poverty amid conspicuous wealth. Decades of seeing streetchildren in Metro Manila and having them knock on your car window every day of your commute can?t have desensitized you to their plight.

Interestingly, they?re not a big campaign issue. But the day we don?t have streetchildren anymore is the day we know we have finally elected the right leaders.