Squatters

As it is for most families in the province, it seems like an exodus to leave hardship behind. In the hope of finding new opportunities and a brighter future, they gamble their lives by migrating to the cities. For them, cities are the havens of relief and opportunity. Little do they know that, once they step like prey in an urban jungle, their dreams will be reduced to nothing but a mirage of hope.

Their current situation in the provinces is bleak. Most communities living in these areas are very backward in every sense possible. Educationwise, only a fraction makes it to college. Even fewer are able to finish. This results in most of them having to settle for unskilled or manual labor. Health is also a common problem. Adequate healthcare and medical services are either unaffordable or unavailable in their communities. Since many families rely on farming (usually a low-income occupation in the Philippines), their incomes are not enough to cover many basic needs and expenses. In addition, most of these families have an average of 5-6 children, thus taxing a bigger burden out of the parents.

The metropolis is their ticket for a better future, or so it seems. It has been imprinted in their minds that life in the city is more fruitful. They think life is easier sustained in the cities than it is in their pristine homelands. A sense of inferiority, and a colonial mentality accented by centuries of various foreign rule, drive them to leave their farmlands or fisheries behind to head for the big jungle of glass and steel that gleams in the horizon. This philosophy is also reinforced through an inborn human flaw of greed.

Once inside the borders of city life, they are again plunged into hardship, a plight often times much worse than their lives were in the province. Their dreams will fade into dust, like a house of cards blown away by the sandstorms of reality.

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