Charity

This day is only getting better :)

Just before I left for work, my nephew Tom told me that his
older brother Timboy didn't share the potato chips I gave Timboy
yesterday. I just told him that I'd take care of it. Children!

And on the jeepney, an old man (well...about 50 years old,
perhaps a little younger than my mother) started talking to me. Not
to pick me up! :) He first asked if the jeepney would pass Mendiola
St. and I told him that it would depend on whether there were any
police :) Only Quiapo-Santol jeepneys have franchise to pass through
Mendiola. The others have to take Legarda St. But most drivers take
the risk of being caught and fined, especially at night.

He then asked if I were Ilocano. I said that my mother is
but I can understand him well enough. He said that he was a teacher
in Vigan, Ilocos Sur and was going back there tonight. He only came
to Manila to send off a relative going to California. Then he told me
that he was praying that he'd meet an Ilocano. He said that he was
actually left at the domestic airport by his companions who were in
two FX taxis. He asked me for 72 pesos to add to his fare for Vigan.
I said that I could not help him. He then asked if I could give him
even just 40 pesos. And I still said no.

With so many swindlers in the city, one cannot be too
careful. When he went off the jeepney, I quelled my feelings of guilt
for not helping a needy one. His story is too much like those men,
women or children in Quiapo, Recto, Morayta and other crowded places
in the metro, asking for a minimum of five pesos to complete their
fare home. When one pass by those places again in another day, one
will see these same people encouraging others to give them money. And
they will not be "home" for a very long time...not as long as people
are willing to loosen their purses.

I remember another comparable incident that happened to me
and my sister last year.

Anyway, when the old man went off the jeepney, I then
noticed that he was carrying a big umbrella. In my mind, that
umbrella gave his story a loophole bigger than those I already
noticed. For example, I wouldn't be at the domestic airport if my
relative were going abroad. I'd be in NAIA 1 or at the Centennial
Terminal, depending on what plane my relative would take. But I
thought that he couldn't know any better – the difference between
domestic and international airport -- even if he was a teacher. But
if I had a car waiting for me and it was not raining, I wouldn't be
carrying a big umbrella around, especially not at the airport where
security is stricter. I would leave the umbrella at the FX but not my
wallet.

I guess that I was right not to give him money.

sayong
09-02-05 1:35pm