Kablog2’s Weblog

Because it wasn’t a story about multi-million peso properties in high-end areas in the United States, this story was buried in just about the most unimportant page of yesterday’s Inquirer:

1 dead in fight over stuffed toy

A fight over an old discarded stuffed toy left a scavenger dead and another wounded yesterday afternoon.  PO2 Norlan Margallo of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit identified the two as Jimson Navarro and Jun Flores, both residents of Payatas, Quezon City.  Margallo said Flores stabbed Navarro dead after an argument over the ownership of a stuffed bear which they found in the dump.  Witnesses said the two men grabbed the toy at the same time, both refusing to let go, as they argued over who got to keep it.  During the struggle, Flores punched Navarro in the face and then pulled out a knife which he used to stab the victim repeatedly.  Police said Navarro died on the spot while Flores fled brom the dump, bringing with him the stuffed toy. –Nancy Carvajal.

If you have been to a dump site and have seen how this people live you would not really be surprised.  To the scavengers a scrap, a piece of plastic or rusted metal is a step closer to a next meal, whenever that comes.  The stuffed bear they fought over must be for a child cruelly denied a toy by their poverty.  Obviously, an old and discarded toy is enough reason to kill another person who also claims it.

I am not justifying the killing.  What I am condemning is the grinding poverty that pushed these scavengers to such actions even when the president’s children acquire expensive houses without even declaring them, as required by law.