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14  Two Kinds of Thieves and Killers

 

Now take for instance, Mang Tibo now squats on the floor, the notion of robbery.

During the last fiesta in this barrio, the parish priest came to say Mass. Afterwards we asked him what he thought of our desire to own the land. Now, do you remember what he answered us? He said, quoting the Bible: “Thou shall not steal!” I mean, Mang Tibo’s voice rings with sarcasm, who can quarrel with that moral admonition?

What he did not tell us, however, is even more important. You see, there are two ways of stealing: the individual way, and the social way.                                         

For instance, if I go to the house of Mang Juan one night when he and his family are away, and there I take various things that are not mine, what am I doing? I am stealing what does not belong to me, right? This is one individual way of dealing. And if I get caught, what will happen to me? I might

 

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end up in jail.

But if I am a landlord and I have tenants and workers whom I hire and at harvest time I don’t give them the just share or a just wage; in other words, I don’t give them what is due them as human beings because in the first place, I don’t consider them human like me. If I do this – taking what is not mine – what am I doing? Obviously, or, perhaps, not too obviously, I am taking what does not belong to me. This is the social way of stealing. More often than not, it is sanctioned by law, or, at least accepted by society.

In fact, if, as a landlord, I steal in this fashion, and you ask me what will happen to me: will I end up in jail? But of course not. I will begin to accumulate so much money that I can afford to give to charity. I will end up as a philanthropist, perhaps, or certainly, an “honorable” person.

At this juncture, the laughter of the group is uncontrollable.

Oh yes, another peasant says to Mang Tibo, and at Christ­mas time you might give us presents. Also, if I die of tuber­culosis, you might even give my family a five-peso offering for which you’ll expect them to be grateful eternally, right? Right.

The laughter of anger pervades the room while Aling Juana lights another candle. Coffee is ready, but some have in the meantime passed around a pitcher of tuba, (coconut wine) Mang

 

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Perino says, come on, drink for the “enlightenment” of your mind! (A Filipino idiom which is similar to 'in vino veritas’.)

I take the same view with regard to murder, Mang Enzo, whose children died of undernourishment, now rises to speak. Don’t we often say, there are many ways of killing a cat? Well, I’ve found out that there are a few ways of killing people.

The individual way is simple and. damnable: I get a dagger and stab you in the heart till you breathe your last. Well, some of you might remember what happened to my family last year. One after another, my two kids died. My kind landlord was very sorry. He even gave a fifth-peso offering for funeral services.

My friends and acquaintances, too, were so sorry that such a tragedy had happened to me and my sickly wife. People said, “Poor Enzo, in less than a year two of his daughters died.”

I thought, then, as I think now that it is not quite ac­curate to say that my daughters died. I tell you how clearly, they were killed. You all know that I have only two hectares of land to till. My landlord owns at least a hundred and fifty and we are about 40 tenants in all under him in different parts of this province. I have to shoulder all the cost of production. At harvest time, the landlord takes fifty percent of the gross.

Then I sell whatever little is left because nowadays, unlike before, one needs money to get most of his necessities.

Before we know it, we are short of money again. One after the other, my daughters got sick and we had no money to

 

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buy medicine. I thought they had fully recovered when the next year they got sick again. Well, you know the rest of the story, Enzo says.

But tell me, Enzo is almost pleading for understanding, if my landlord were less greedy and the middlemen less like crocodiles, would not my daughters still live today? Tell me, who killed, or if you want, what really killed my daughters? Isn’t it time we acted forcefully against the social ways employed by others of murdering our children and, eventually, us too?

We care so much for the plants of the field, and the carabao which helps us. We respect their life very much. Surely, Mang Enzo emphasizes, our concern for our own human life should make us even more meticulous in determining the ever present yet hidden dangers affecting it.