‘OUR HOME IS NOT EVEN 1/3 OF IMELDA’S TOILET’
FROM the gilded Palace and into the streets they went, and then back to the hovels they call home. Sunday Inquirer “went home” to Leveriza with some of the Palace visitors in order to confirm the intensity of the Malacanang visitors’ shock. Indeed, as a woman said, “Our homes are not even one third of Imelda’s toilet.”
Angelina Quintana, 32, cannot, quite get over her Malacanang experience. She says in Pilipino: “Now I can die, I have entered the Palace. I had an asthma attack because I didn’t bring my food.” Angelina is all of 70 pounds, frail as a dried leaf, and suffers from lung ailment. She, her husband who is an occasional carpenter and two children live in a six by 12 by 5’/2 feet room. Angelita’s eldest son, works as pulot boy for tennis buffs. Badly in need of medical care, Angelina casually says, “I just buy Tuseran when I have attacks.”
Emmie Funes, 44, Rosei Herediano, 48, and Aling Angeles, 54, were among the 75 Leveriza slum residents who went on the first day Malacanang opened. A nun who works and lives in their area helped them get in. Put all together, their baon to Malacanang consisted of, kamoteng kahoy (cassava), bits of sardines, salt and rice mixed with cooking oil.
Says Aling Angeles in Pilipino: “Before we could not even touch the grills of Malacanang. I campaigned for Cory. I don’t expect any reward. It is enough that there will be changes in the country. We should all profit from this.”
Pedro Ilagan, 73, former tailor, is home now to his oven-hot little cramped house where his wife Donata, 68, a daughter and two grandchildren live. Donata, a former vendor, suffered a stroke several months ago and has lost her sense of hearing. She is given to crying and moaning. One of her children works in the pier and only when a boat docks does he bring home money for their subsistence. Says Pedro of what he saw in Malacanang: “they left so many things. I’m happy we have a new president.”
Rose recalls: One of our companions fainted in Imelda’s toilet. She wanted to use the toilet. She said she felt she was sinking in the bathroom floor. What kind of toilet is that? Or maybe it was the very soft carpet that made her dizzy.”
“We saw Imelda’s clothes. I wish we could have them,” says one of the women.
Says Emmie of Imelda:
“Nagpasasa siya, samantalang kami nalilipasan ng gutom.” (She lived it up while we were going hungry.)
MA. CERES P. DOYO
