SunStar
January 12, 2021
DIRE poverty on a massive scale is clearly our number one problem, not human rights. The problem is one of human rights only in the sense that poverty is the result of people being systemically barred from accessing their fundamental right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
(The two main obstacles to a solution are the gaping partisan divide I am treating in today’s column and the good Filipino’s indifference I will treat in the next.)
Why then is there excessive clamor to stop drug war-related rights violations but merely a whimper to eradicate poverty which wastes the lives of more Filipinos than the drug war ever will? Why do the party in power and the party or parties out of power not close ranks and bridge the partisan gap to fight off poverty instead? ....