WHEN LOVING ONE'S COUNTRY BECOMES UNBEARABLE

What is being a productive citizen? We could be working in an office, or making crafts for sale, or serving at a canteen and feeding people and then getting a salary in return. These are jobs that produce income to society. Through our work, we pay our taxes to the BIR which then feeds the government programs. and projects.

However, there are some jobs that incur a different response in society, especially from the police. As a writer, the response to me is terrible: I get harassed every night by some underground service men who play pool right below my window, discuss loudly and laugh at their hearts content until the wee hours of the morning. I am even wondering how come the units below the building who are directly in front of them do not complain. A group of tricycle drivers also rev up their engines very loudly as they pass on the left side of our building purportedly done to make me notice them and thus not be able to concentrate on my writings or whatever I am doing.

Because of this, I am wakened up almost every hour, and my eyes are feeling very tired.  In the daytime I feel so sleepy because of lack of sleep.

Now I have not sat on this problem Folks. I have reported the matter to the barangay Doña Imelda, the 8888 and 911 numbers, as well as the offices of Galas Police Station and the ODD (Office of the Directorate).

However, the playing of pool is consistently done almost every night. No let up as if I did not complain at all. Neither the tricycle noise which could be easily solved if only the LTFRB would require silencers in every tricycle.

Now I wonder. That task of reporting to the authorities takes away my attention from the more productive jobs I could do. It takes me away from composing music, from writing my short stories and fairytales for children; in other words the more worthwhile and important jobs that would be considered as legacies to humanity.

So when I report to the authorities, I am not being productive anymore. I become a social activist, to help society be cleansed of unwanted individuals who destroy the peace and quiet in our society.

Who is the loser in this game? I am because I lose time, space and the opportunity to be productive in a wholesome manner.This is a truly unbearable endeavor - to be loving our country and putting up with harassment.

I think we should have a statistician who will count the hours lost for productive work when we have to report shenanigans to the police. In this manner, the police will not wait for the citizens to report to them all the time but will insure that with one report, not several reports, the probem will be solved.

But there is something I wish the courts would do. When a citizen has a legitimate complaint to be resolved and is resolved in his or her favor, the government must pay the victim the costs of the harassment or the crime, whatsoever.

It is no joke when I lose my two puppets of the Pied Piper which cost me eight hundred pesos, and other valuables like the Rieta laser light (2 pcs) costing six thousand each when I bought them in the 90's but now costs P18000 each, according to Maja Prevendido, the distributor of Panfilo Rieta's invention. My weighing scale which costs P300 is nowhere to  be found. My em rule for printing is gone and it costs now over two hundred pesos. Add to these the costs of going out to buy them at the source plus the sleepless nights.

So you see, Folks, how much we lose individually when we are harassed? I hope that the IAS would really do something about wayward police staff.  They are not only a disgrace, they are saboteurs of individual initiatives to improve our lives economically.