MAGINHAWA community pantry started on April 14, and has inspired us and several communities to replicate the pantry-idea which aims to provide food for the poor and needy during enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). This initiative shows Filipinos solidarity in different parts of the country amidst the crisis.
However, recently Maginhawa community pantries have been allegedly red-tagged by the Quezon City police and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
I am writing to you as I am also a pantry volunteer in our area. Community pantries were established with a good and pure intention of aiding the needy people. However, it has to my attention that some pantries had become a tactic of the left-leaning groups to advance their political agenda, this was proven by a photo posted in the Facebook page of NTF-ELCAC.
Community pantries have now been tainted with a bad reputation. Bayan Muna’s Rep. Zarate even added on the issue. In his Twitter post he stated that community pantry is an act of resistance against government neglect and indifference.
Zarate made it look like we are demoralizing the effort of the government when in fact the pure intention of the setting up community pantries is to aid the government in feeding the needy people.
His remark is a grave threat to the pantry volunteers. He and his left-leaning party-list members should have set aside their political agenda if their true desire is to help. Our simple pantry is not an act of resistance to the government. We do it because we care and are Filipinos, too.
So to everyone who wants to up their own community pantries, I will leave to you this quote: “If you’re helping someone to expect something in return, then you’re doing business, not kindness. – CHARITY CABUYADAO, Quezon City <chachacabuyadao@yahoo.com>
