Upon reading an article in three daily newspapers last week, i quickly sent a group message regarding an 11-year old girl's suicide in Davao City. I got this article from Yehey! News entitled,
| Poverty-motivated suicide alarms senator |
11-year old Marianette ended her life last November 2 by hanging herself inside their house in Barangay Maa, Davao City after losing hope on her family's miserable situation.
Found atop her bed is a diary which revealed her prayer for her parents to have a job and for her siblings to be enrolled in school. The diary also narrates her crying because of her family's way of living which includes begging for "kaning-lamig" for their meals.
A letter addressed to the "Wish ko lang" program was also found and it bared Marianette's desire to have a dress, shoes and bicycle which she will use on going to school.
It was learned that Marianette's father irregularly works as a carpenter and she often fails to go to school because of their financial difficulties.
Revilla pointed out that Marianette's death reflects how most Filipinos feel about their state of living as indicated by the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that showed more Filipino families, about nine million of them, consider themselves "mahirap" or poor.
Based on the SWS survey, the self-rated poverty incidence of 52 percent for September was up from June's 47 percent but still far from all-time highs. Self-rated poverty fell in the Visayas but the numbers increased in the rest of the nation, and the SWS noted further belt-tightening among poor families.The survey results also found that 43 percent, or about 7.5 million Filipino families, considered themselves poor in terms of food. This self-rated food poverty was up from the 37-39 percent in the first two quarters of 2007. Again, a drop was noted in the Visayas but the numbers increased elsewhere.
The third quarter survey was conducted over September 2-5, 2007 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the
Reacting to the SWS survey, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye noted that there was actually a decline of around 6 percent from a range last year of 55 to 59 percent to only 47 to 53 percent this year.
Bunye said the decline roughly translates to five million Filipinos or one million families.
Balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The sampling error margins were 3 percent for national percentages and 6 percent for area percentages.
---I don't know what is wrong with the government, but I just hope and pray that the poor girl will still go to heaven. We all know that suicides go to hell, but I just hope Marianette will not. I saw her picture in the news and I saw how cute she is. I just hope this never happens again. Let us pray for Marianette's soul and the many others in need.
