"Equal Rights Equal Opportunities"

 

Oft. Repeatedly asserted is that Divine Providence Created all men equal and by Omni potential design, every Adam’s son and Eve’s daughter is bestowed with equal rights and correspondingly equal opportunities.

       In a Philippine socio-political context, the equal rights doctrine is constitutionally enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Every Filipino citizen is guaranteed with inviolable rights, privileges and legal entitlements and by implication; equal opportunities are available to all.
       Lamentably however, prevailing social, economic and political conditions provide screaming evidence that the afore mentioned fundamental-law mandate is more honored in the breach than in observance and has actually lapsed into a dead letter. Philippine Society is divided into two interest-conflicting camps-entrenched wealth and grinding impoverishment. The privileged minority control capital, resources, and the means of production, businesses and almost all revenue-generating persuits while the disfranchised majority remains stuck in poverty’s quagmire. This Yawning disparity can be singularly portrayed by the multi-hundred-million-peso mansions in such opulent enclaves as Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Village Compared with the miserable squatters dog-houses precariously perched along Filthy estero banks. Political dynasties and vested interests enjoy a monopolistic stranglehold on elective leadership positions from the barangay to the national level while the opportunity of the unmonied to grab an electoral seat is parodied to be as good as the chance of a show flake.
       Equal rights and Equal opportunities? Hagwash!