With more than a year of a seemingly never-ending cycle of community quarantine, it is no longer surprising that community pantries have spread far and wide in the country. Benchmarked by the Maginhawa Community Pantry in Quezon City, thousands of people with a small bamboo cart of fresh food were fed for free. As much as it mirrors the “bayanihan” spirit of Filipinos in this pandemic time, we firmly believe that this idea is quite problematic.
As expected after becoming viral on social media, the concept created a domino effect with the rest of the country particularly the NCR+ bubble, more so in Cavite. According to GO Cavite Facebook page, a group of friends in Barangay Zone IV, Dasmariñas City opened their own community pantry. It includes fresh produce, canned goods and other hygiene products such as alcohol and face masks.
Truly, such initiative is kind of a breath of fresh air with all the negativity we see on our TVs and on social media. It is endearing, touching, motivational, and it somehow lightens the burden for most of our communities stricken by poverty and unemployment in this long-standing pandemic. We appreciate the good motives of those people who choose to follow suit.
However, this community pantry offers only short-term and temporary relief. We have to admit the awful truth that hunger is a political issue. This is only a band-aid solution for most of our fellow Filipinos under the poverty line. Either we admit it or not, the majority of us need cash and not only “pantawid-gutom” retails. Thousands of Caviteños are still waiting for the second tranche of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) from the Department of “Selective” (as netizens have called the agency) Welfare and Development (DSWD) but unfortunately, according to Governor Jonvic Remulla March 31 post, “huwag nang asahan ang second tranche ng SAP lalo’t hindi pa rin sigurado ang third”.
In addition, this community pantry concept has a high tendency of becoming a catastrophe, particularly if done with poor organization. As per GMA News, a group of six women in Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig City were caught on cam while hoarding all the goods in the pantry table. In this sense, the community pantry became a channel of greed. This incident actually defeats the purpose of the community pantry in which “anyone can donate whatever they can and no one can take more than what they need”. It is saddening that because of food insecurity, people are becoming greedier than ever by saving almost nothing for others who are also in need.
Nonetheless, the founder of Maginhawa Community Pantry Ana Patricia Non herself says that she initiated the pantry because she is tired of the government’s “inaction”. The root cause of impoverishment is lack of income due to unemployment, and businesses are still not at full capacity because of the risks of the COVID-19 virus. What the government fails to understand is defaulting to the same old lockdown is no longer effective. Implementing a lighter Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) for the second time is not the tangible solution. It only prolongs the suffering of most Filipinos. Yet, what is even more disappointing is while we are here, left with no other choice but to be the ones to help each other out, the government has the audacity to red-tag the volunteers of the Maginhawa project as part of the Communist Party of the Philippines. According to Non’s Facebook post, their volunteers and donors feel unsafe because of the recent red-tagging incidents, which led to their pantry’s temporary closure.
Reality check: Filipinos don't deserve to resort to these little to no ways for survival. The saying “Matutong mamaluktot habang maikli ang kumot” is no longer feasible at this point in time. We have endured enough, and we need a longer blanket. We must stop asking for the bare minimum. It is high time that we keep on holding the government accountable for their shortcomings and negligence. From the long overdue demand for stronger contact tracing, mass testing, appropriate vaccination rollouts, and an upgrade with the implementation of the Protection Isolation Detection Treatment Reintegration (PIDTR) method.
As much as these community pantries manifest the Filipinos’ innate generosity and altruism, we do not need more of them. What we truly need are more concrete actions and long-term strategies from the authorities. These pantries only fill in the gaps between the government’s slow-paced response when in reality, it is the job of those in public posts to do that in the first place. This is the problem with community pantries that we should all rethink about.
Sources:
Community pantry: ‘Not charity, but mutual aid’ | Inquirer News
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