After two years of being apart from one another due to COVID19 restrictions, it is quite tempting to be more lavish and extravagant this Christmas. For many of us, this will be our first Christmas back home, and our first Christmas back with our families. True to our Filipino culture, we want to make the most of our celebrations, and what else could be more worthy of our celebration than the day our Savior is born?
But while there may be a number of reasons for us to go all out in our celebrations this year, many families in our country and in our communities are still struggling because of the effects of the pandemic and the state of the economy.
As many of us already know, this year saw a drastic increase in basic commodities. The price of rice, garlic, onions, fish, chicken, and pork, among others, have drastically increased since 2019. Sugar, notably, has doubled in price since last year. This undeniable trend is felt in all households across the nation. Inflation rate is the highest since December 2008 which greatly affected the purchasing power of minimum wage earners.
Unfortunately, real wages continue to deteriorate in the midst of unabated skyrocketing prices of food items and other basic commodities. According to research group IBON Foundation, a family of five should receive a wage of Php 1,133/day or Php 24,632/month in order to live decently. As of June 2022, National Capital Region (NCR) minimum wage is at Php 570/day. The gap between living wage and minimum wage is even larger outside NCR as workers from other regions receive lower minimum wages.
Sadly, things are even worse for those who have lost jobs this year. Just this October, 4,485 workers at the Mactan Export Processing Zone and the Cebu Light Industrial Park, both located in Lapu-Lapu City, were laid off in the largest retrenchment this year in the Philippines. This is after five companies, all owned by the Taiwan-based Sports Center International, issued joint notices of retrenchment on September 26, 2022. This comes after more than 9,400 workers have already been laid off or placed on forced leave, according to the Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines (CONWEP). Even Shopee, one of the more successful tech companies in the past two years, laid off hundreds of workers this year in order to “optimize” operations.
Here in Negros Occidental, from the 95 cases of land rights violations gathered by KAISAHAN from June 2021 to November 2022 during the Dagyaw Negros Free Land Rights Mobile Help Desks, 269 land-related human rights violations were also recorded. Eight defenders were killed. Indicated nature of violations included lack of/obstructed access to land/property (22%), displacement (17%), threat or intimidation (16%), harassment (10%), disruption or loss of livelihood (9%), deprivation of access to basic utilities such as water, fuel for cooking and electricity (7%), gender-related (6%), destruction of property (5%), killings (4%), forced eviction (3%) and sickness due to environmental pollution (1%).
Despite the different nature of violations to human rights and basic freedoms, the KAISAHAN Report observed that each case fits under one of the following five causes: lack of coordination within government offices or agencies (14%)8, resistance from private companies or individuals of influence (18%), farmer-to-farmer or internal community conflict (19%), landowner resistance (20%) and inaction by the responsible government agencies (29%).
These conditions, together with the increasing prices, stagnating wages, and massive unemployment all translate to more hunger and chronic poverty among the rural and urban poor. While our reason for celebration remains relevant and intact – the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ – these realities should cause us to reflect on what our focus must be this Christmas, and what we should do for our neighbor this Christmas.
Last December 14, 2022, Pope Francis called upon Christians to celebrate a “more humble Christmas, with more humble gifts” and to send what we can to help those who are in need, especially in war-torn Ukraine. Humility and generosity go hand-in-hand, and they are both at the heart of the reason for the occasion. After all, it is the ultimate act of humility and generosity from God that he chose to be among us, who are in spiritual poverty, in order to give us the salvation we need through his Son. We must, as the Holy Father encouraged us, remember the poor among us and those who are struggling: both in welcoming the blessings we have received in humble gratitude, and in extending those blessings to help those in need.
Aside from helping one another in our basic needs, we can also help the poorest among us by acts of service and volunteerism, as well as taking on the cause of our most vulnerable neighbors in pushing for policies that would help alleviate poverty and promote the welfare of those most in need.
Two thousand years ago, our Lord’s family had no place to rest their heads, even as Mother Mary was about to give birth. They were, like many of us, helpless and alone amidst a time of family gatherings and homecomings. If it were our doors upon which they knocked, would we have opened our homes to them? Would we have blessed them with gifts? Would we have given them refuge when they were fleeing their King?
Our Lord’s family survived not just through God’s grace, but because of the goodness of the faithful around him. If Jesus were born today, my prayer is that he would have such a community of faithful and compassionate people who would help his family survive, who would bless him, and would give him the formation he needed for his eventual task.
In his plan of redemption God chose to be born to a family – small, poor, helpless & vulnerable. Such families exist here today. In our midst. They are waiting for our humility and generosity for one another, to carry their burdens with them, and together welcome Christmas with a grateful heart.