Woman in a sewer leads ABS-CBN News to expand reports on housing for poor

CHEERS TO the ABS-CBN News Online for providing expanded reports on government assistance and housing for the poor after the viral spread on May 26 of a photo showing a woman crawling out of a drainage in Makati. She was retrieving a cutter blade that she had dropped into the sewer.    

Mainstream media were quick to pick up the story on May 27. News accounts from GMA Integrated News and Philstar.com described the woman as a street dweller, selling recyclable garbage for a living. Most of the articles concentrated on her dire poverty, detailing the woman’s precarious state. A related report on May 31 also reported families taking shelter in the sewers. 

Media coverage from May 28 to June 3 followed up on the immediate government aid she received from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). 

The report of ABS-CBN News Online by Jonathan de Santos on June 1 stood out for the larger context that it presented. De Santos drew the focus from this individual case to the larger reality of poverty in the country, the range of basic needs that calls for attention and action, including the lack of programs to build affordable housing and long-term solutions to the living conditions of Filipinos in general, especially those who are forced to live in informal settlements. 

De Santos also discussed the difficulties hounding relocation efforts in urban poor communities — the inaccessibility of relocation sites, the distance of these areas from transportation, from utilities and social services.  Citing a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), he said that with the incomes they earn, urban poor families cannot afford the cost of socialized housing. 

As journalists have lost their gatekeeping function to social media, they should reclaim the important function of discussing the relevance of these stories to people’s needs, reminding public officials about the urgency of the government to respond to them. 

The government must recognize the problem posed by the cost of living in Metro Manila and the lack of affordable housing for the poor who earn their living in urban centers around the country. In Metro Manila, the poor are forced to make their homes in areas that are not fit for living. The picture of the woman in the drainage should call official attention to lack of shelter for Filipinos. 

There is no reason for complacency. The nightmare is real, and it must end.