THE SAD TALE OF MARIANNET AMPER
So the Philippine government has accepted responsibility, GMA has expressed her indignation, and the Philippine Catholic Church has passed the blame onto all of us for the suicide of Mariannet Amper.
For those of you who haven't heard yet, Mariannet Amper is the 12 year old girl from Davao who committed suicide due to the poverse circumstances of her family.
Now although it's rather big of the abovementioned to express their sadness and anger over such a senseless death, I don't share the opinions of the Church that it is completely OUR fault. I'm sorry, that is a copout. At the end of the day, it is you, The Catholic Church, and the Philippine government who should be to blame. NOT ALL OF US. I mean, the matter here is really simple. Cry, complain, and bitch all day long, but for as long as you folks in the National government and the Philippine clergy DO NOT SUPPORT family planning, and promote artificial methods of birth control among the most desperate of our countrymen, stories like Mariannet will perhaps become a common one.
I mean, really. To deny that overpopulation and improper sexual education is NOT a major reason why poor Filipinos cannot rise out of their dire situation is sheer idiocy. To turn a blind eye to this connection is tantamount to killing your own people.
So back off Bishops. Don't pass the blame onto us. We, the Filipino people, just like Mariannet are victims of your myopic outdated and insular policies.
Period.
Really, to blame us. How dare you...
posted by carlosceldran @ 12:44 PM
31 Comments:
I couldn't agree with you more. I am a Roman Catholic, but not following my religion's antiquated pedagogy about sex does not make me less of a Christian. Have a nice day.
Carlos, I ABSOLUTELY agree with you! As a matter of fact, I think that lowering the population rate (and the most effective way is, of course, through artificial birth control) might be the single most important change the country needs. Nearly all of our problems -- poverty, poor education, joblessness, emigration, crime, corruption -- can be traced to the fact that there are just too damn many of us in this tiny archipelago. It's just logical and common sense...but then, when were logic and common sense ever tenets of the Catholic Church? :-/
And...blaming US for the poor child's suicide?! That is just despicable. They insult her memory and her family by doing that. How dare they, indeed!!!
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Hmmm.. on the other hand, I think, EVERYONE just got to learn how to really care... for others, for our surroundings, for our country and not only for themselves.
You have to understand that the Bishops have a vested interest in making sure our population grows. More Catholics, more church income....And so they can have money to buy silk robes and live in palatial mansions from where they can pontificate and bugger the altar boys...
Until when will the govt. say enough is enough.Stop being pressured by the church.And decide realistically that our country needs a comprehensive population program.Political will folks!That is what we need.
I agree and would add only one more thing: Stolen money.
When I see the slums in Manila, or hear about the conflict in Mindanao, I think of stolen money. The big c: Corruption.
There's an enormous gap between the natural wealth and the talents of this country's citizens, and what the political "leadership" has consistently failed to materialize, for decades now. Why?
Poverty does not happen in a void, it's happening because politicians do not prioritize what they can do for the nation over what they can do to benefit themselves, their careers, and their families. I mean the Marcos' + cronies stole probably an entire year's national budget when you put it together! Money gone missing for schools, for roads, for public transit, for housing, for job initiatives, for the arts. Just gone. And that's just the OLD news of 30 years ago.
Corruption has a way of entrenching itself. It's intimidating to anyone who wants to try to change the system, including us. But it can be done.
Agree 100% with indiobravo: POLITICAL WILL.
And agree with Carlos: yes, the one policy change of embracing family planning would make a huge difference.
Carlos,
I totally agree with you on this. Both of them should change now.
I agree with you Carlos. This country need URGENTLY to address the problem of over population and make work of an efficient family planning (= promote artificial methods of birth control among ALL Filipino’s).
But I also agree with the Church when they say that we failed as a society. Yes, I feel guilty. As you know, I am quite vocal when it comes to poverty but at the end of the day, I need to confess that I am not doing enough.
“This means we have not done well. We have not done our civic duty to correct the abuses and to censure graft and corruption. We have kept our eyes closed. We did not act,” said Catholic Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz
The Protestant sector, through Bishop Eliezer Pascua of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, said, “We have called them “poor” and “eyesores” but what do you call a society which made them like this?”
I agree with you, the Catholic Church is the main culprit BUT we should not whitewash our own individual responsibilities.
I watched her 2 siblings in ANC Crossroads. Apparently, she had attempted to slash her wrists as witnessed by the brother. Aside from poverty, we can learn a lot from her death.
Instead of blaming, I took the other side of the coin..suicide prevention.
We need to educate ourselves on suicide prevention. Suicide is a preventable public health problem in the Philippines if we just know how to detect the symptoms. Suicide should no longer be considered a taboo topic, and that through raising awareness and educating the public, we can SAVE lives.
I made a page for suicide prevention:
http://aboutmyrecovery.com/suicide-prevention/
Not just Political Will is needed , what is truly needed is National Will ...the will and desire to change an antiquated political / social system that breeds the conditions seen in the Philippines . ust having returned from a trip to the RP I found nothing much had changed since the Marcos time when I first visited . Still the extremes etc , the only difference was that the money changers had heard of the Australian dollar . The Will of the People has to triumph before these tragedies can be over come . STRART NOW !
Very well said. Politicians do everything they can to get the endorsement of the church to get votes and pogi points.
One incident that comes to mind was former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza's banning of condoms from all Manila drug stores. Not only was this action utterly hyprocritical, it was also a constitutional violation of the rights of Filipinos who are not Catholics, who do not subscribe to the teachings of the Catholic church.
If only those damn bishops get their heads out of their asses, and stop acting like freaking politicians and start to do what they were set out to do when they first stepped in the novitiate. But NOOOOOO, these self-proclaimed Godsends HAVE to impose their political views on everything. They HAVE to have an opinion on affairs that are beyond the Pope has instructed them to do. Why? Because all they have is their blaming pointing finger. You can't instill values to your flock? Blame the government for abetting gambling. You can't teach your flock the sanctity of life? Blame the government for a kid's senseless death. (BTW, has anybody checked on the poor child's mental health anyway?) You can't effectively teach rhythm method to couples? Blame the condom. Blame blame blame. F*ckin' modern day Padre Damasos.
I am a member of the Roman Catholic Church, but I do not recognize these bishops as representatives of my Church, not like Jaime Sin. They act like agents of some other groups placed there with hidden agendas. F*ck them, and they should all burn in their own hell.
-acid
There's this part in the Bible where some guy asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" And Jesus told him about the good Samaritan. The Ampers had neighbors. I read somewhere that the kids didnt want to play with the Ampers because they were madusing. We have neighbors, too. What have we done for them? A lot of us live in gated communities with guards that keep our neighbors out so we wouldnt have to look at them. If we have done nothing for our neighbors, then yes, we are to blame for Marianett's loss of hope. Im not about to rail against some bishop who says we are all to blame because he is absolutely right.
This is such a tragic story. Instead of blaming the Catholic Church, like some of the posters here have and who I disagree with, I really think that society as a whole need to care about the people around them. The church does what it can to help the poor. If we all volunteered some time in reaching out to the needy, this world would be a much better place.
i agree, it's not our fault. it's not even the government's fault! sure it's sad and all, but didn't they at least consider that the kid's depressed or something?!
"The church does what it can to help the poor."
I'd like you to please qualify that point. How is our Catholic church doing what it can to help the poor? Even the much hyped GK requires you to convert to Catholicism to become a recipient.
"If we have done nothing for our neighbors, then yes, we are to blame for Marianett's loss of hope."
The least one can do, as an ordinary citizen, apart from the fleeting comfort of alms given, is the more far sighted approach of outing and forcing corrupt politicians to quit. Primary and secondary education is supposed to be free. We should stop our corrupt tongressmen stop using money to buy luxury vehicles "to serve the constituents" kuno
I am my brother's neighbour. And my neighbour happens to be a corrupt President who siphons off the nation's resources. Sure it's all talk but at least that's better than being quiet and pretending GMA and her government is God's answer...Pwede ba...
Hay naku, yang mga Obispo. Wake up! Filipinos love having sex! Even priests do it!
Hi Carlos,
what happened to the girl makes me sad. If I read about such sad events from the perspective of a person living in a rich country I cry to see children in a dead end road situation only because of poverty. You know I lived in the Philippines for a long time and I think I know your society a little bit.
I saw the poverty. I also tried to help. But the issue is too big for single action. I agree with you to argue about the passive role of government and the agree that the church is playing a contra productive game. Family planning starts with educating people about contraceptives. We all enjoy sex whether we are citizens of a rich or a poor country. But if you have sex without contraceptives in a rich country the consequences might not be that dramatic. Why? Because you will be able to provide a future for the child you fathered. But in an 'environment of poverty' you will not be able to provide at least the basic needs for a child.
And that's why it is so important to teach poor folks about family planning. We all shall have sex-YES. But we all shall decide by our own whether the outcome is a child or not. And poor folks should have the chance to get education about the consequences to have a child. What it means to raise a child!!
The cleriks should be more careful what they do and say. They don't have any clue about the consequences to have children- or do they? They are equipped with money in case they father a child- and they do!!!! So no problem for them at all. But they force the poor to have more and more children in any Sunday prayer. And the poor they do have problems as we see in the current tragic story.
Carlos please do your best in your tours and give condomes to the people. We need family planing. We need family planning in the 'rich world' and we need family planning in the 'developing world'. Our planet is too small to produce food an wealth for more people. This might be egoistic. But we only can fight the collapse of this planet if we control the birth rate of our race.
Hi Carlos, i read Davao Bishop Cruz's statement, and he did not pass on the blame to us. He took the blame too - we are all to blame, we, the church. A community of believers. I think that even if we are so manhid na to the kagaguhan that the government does to us and to what they are not doing for us, we don't have to wait for them do we? tayo na lang ang kumilos.
i am so disgusted with gma by the way.
In this topic we can really see who are from the Philippines and who are outside of the Philippines (more brainwashing or copying ideas from the rapidly regressing western societies) and who have something against religions and blame it and take it out on them. Or simply joining the blame club.
The truth is it is everyone at fault. Society. The bad ones. This is all mentioned in the Bible that in the last days it would be filled with these kinds of problems, greed, and bad characters going against each other. The government did not do its job or is not doing what it could do, and some everyday people ignore the problems and the sight of poor people hoping they would go away, and people of power continue to be hungry for power and money and continue bickering like spoiled, ungrateful children sin verguenza. Some in the Catholic church are with good intentions and some are abusing situations just like anyone else can.
In every group, every place and party, there are the bad people with bad intentions and it doesn't mean that those individuals represent their field or people from that group. That's generalizing. There are people who do have good ideas, have care and balance things and still be strong in their culture, faith and principals, rather than be biased and letting outsiders and their ignorance take over them.
As for overpopulation, the government did not take responsibility for knowing that parents will have many kids, meaning they did not create programs or funds or build cities strategically as well as valuing agriculture.
Also, everyday people are at fault because they took the whole multiply word at heart and had too many kids. If you believe that there should be family planning in your marriage, then why feel so threatened by what those priests have to say when you know you are doing more good for society rather than creating more problems and hurting your finances! People have also become so preoccupied with work, and material things that they have ignored social issues and that there are those in need. There are poor people who are also at fault because of being lazy, ignorant and playing victim, but there are also the ones who are really trying and are hurt by what everyone is doing.
Those people who cheat on their spouses and have queridas or kabet, and have children by them are a big problem because they had opened a door that was so far away from even being opened. These kids all add up, and you also hurt the welfare of these kids because they will be lacking something and you will not be the parent you can be to them.
Another thing is, what kind of overpopulation is it? Today around the world we are seeing overpopulation meaning being cramped up in the cities due to industrialization, urbanization and exploitation. Too many people are flocking to the cities because that's where the so-called jobs are. But not everyone can have a university education, and too many people even have these now that this process is now questionable too. Not everyone can be a supervisor or executive. Farming has been looked down on for too long now because the support for it and providing decent wages for it, is sad. If it was held highly and supported by the government, then we would not have so many people flocking to the cities and metro areas blindly aiming for work, only to find none and end up squatting because they either can't go back to their province or they don't want to. We would also see fewer depressing cases of beautiful lands (that feed us) being wasted and having concrete and soulless industries and buildings replace them. This goes back to the whole notion of parents having so many children. This concept was originally done because our roots were the farms and people needed to have many children in order to work the crops. So there is no need to have so many children now, unless you are in farming and unless you can afford it and are responsible. Around the world we are allowing ourselves to get more complex and complicated, drifting further and further away from our roots and are drifting from being real people.
People are also not supporting Filipino industries, companies and products to the best that they can help. If we all helped our own home-grown businesses and industries, then we would reach out to the people not only in the cities but to those in the other provinces and countryside who produce their goods over there. Those big foreign/int'l corporations are already wealthy enough.
Carlos, I'm glad you brought up this issue, but to the best of your ability please continue to promote the country and the city of Manila through your tours, your heart and skills. Maybe you might be able to touch or turn on a light in someone (foreign or local) in one of your tour groups and they might take a strong interest in our history, values and culture and be able to contribute or do something to help. It starts with a person at at time. Please remember our culture, values and history and promote the preservation of it and the beauty of what we live and have. We shouldn't have to water-down or alter our ways for anyone else or to be like others. That's what makes us, us. Our Filipino culture. And it is said that knowing history is the key to moving forward, otherwise if you don't know the history, you will live life blindly never learning from past mistakes and will never move forward.
Alejandro
to the nashman:
please be informed that members of other religions have benefited as recipients from the GK program.
being roman catholic is not a qualification to be a recipient.
just for clarification.
I heart GK. Nashman, please know what you talk about before you say anything about it.
We are each other's keeper. Di ba that's what Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself? Aren't we supposed to fill the earth and subdue it? Cmon guys, where is our faith ? Didn't our parents teach us to love, not to steal, not to kill? If a Bishop or a priest says something, before we react emotionally can we just really listen - hindi yung selective listening ha.
"Didn't our parents teach us to love, not to steal, not to kill? If a Bishop or a priest says something, before we react emotionally can we just really listen - hindi yung selective listening ha."
Oo naman I agree with that. Sadly we have bishops of subterranean intellect just as we have really good bishops. And as far as I know, no one here is stealing or killing apart from GMA and her army of utos-boys.
And I stand by my GK observation. And I do understand why they do it (asking you to convert) and although it is subtle there is some pre-selection of recipients. That's the nature of religion. And that's why as a personal choice I do not donate to religious charities.
cheers,
nash
paraphrasing a line from Steve Martin's movie (Parenthood): in some countries you need a license to drive a car, a license to own a dog, but there doesn't seem to be such a thing as a license to have/raise kids. wow, can you imagine the furor if we mandate sterilization for everyone, the catholic church may possibly go bankrupt.
When is the Church going to take responsibility of its actions and decisions? They always have someone else or something else to blame.
For the Church it is immoral to have family planning or the use of contraceptives but acceptable to have millions of destitute human beings unwanted by parents or born by mistakes living in misery and desperation, meanwhile the Clergy may be poor individually but rich as entity.
The Church is part of the problem and is not part of the solution.
Is it just me or are Filipinos becoming more and more concerned about how the church meddles with the government's (and the nation's) population control program? I hope more politicians and lawmakers will share your views so that they can be bold enough to make a stand and say that sex education and artificial contraception should be promoted.
I’ve visited the Philippines on a number of occasions. What I saw there was a culture of corruption. You might convict one or two blatantly corrupt officials, but until you all–as a nation–teach good moral character, corruption will flourish at all levels. This corruption at all levels is what keeps the PI so poor (the only thing keeping the economy afloat are the Filipinos working abroad sending money home). American friends of mine have tried to start businesses there, but everyone from the town mayor, police, and up want bribes–and they’re like flies on Sh*&–they keep coming back for more! Then their employees kept stealing everything not nailed down. When we visited the PI, we couldn’t even leave our hotel in Manila without our driver being pulled over by corrupt police officers (our drivers did nothing wrong) who demanded bribes or they would arrest our driver (for nothing!). This happens daily. It is very sad how totally corrupt things are over there–it’s even sadder that Filipinos accept all this corruption as “normal” behavior.
Values, humanitarian ways and common sense should be the ones promoted.
Some bishops (and that fool Atienza) can't get their heads out of their asses because they LIKE having their asses stuffed to bursting.
how about just burning the entire country and START OVER
Hmmm.... This is such a sad sad column...
Read this post/blog please bitches. http://underside.wordpress.com/2007/11/17/a-closer-look-at-mariannet-ampers-sad-fate/
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