Almost all poor families in urban slums right now can trace their roots to a common ancestral agricultural background. Primarily, they work as farmers or fishermen in the provinces. Their main source of income comes from the toiled land or the fished sea. But as the country develops into a so-called commercialized society than a backward agricultural one, these farmers are the casualties of progress. As land is converted for more commercial use like subdivisions, amusement parks, shopping malls and golf courses,  farmers lose the only capital they have to survive. As bigtime fishing firms gain monopoly of the sea, fishermen give in to stronger competition. Since it's also a taken fact that these farmers and fishermen have poor educational backgrounds, no other job will be applicable for them. They end up unemployed and restless.

To make matters worse, these backward-minded people are fed with a mentality of finding progress in any urbanized region. For them, the only means of survival is by going to the city in search for new opportunities and jobs. Unfortunately, such illusion is quickly demolished by the harshness of urban living, so most of these migrants end up living in squatted land without an assurance of a bright tomorrow.

In such situations, these newly demoralized poor people seek newer and desperate ways of earning money. This is when small-time crimes are born. This is illustrated in the rough statistics of the Quezon City Jail, where there are as much as 900 people have been accused of poverty-related crimes such as robbery, theft and shoplifting. This is approximately 60% of the jail's current population. Most of these crimes are bailable (average bail is priced at Php 16,000 or $ 420.00), but since most of these people come from the lower end of society, such price is just too astronomical for temporary freedom.

These people don't just commit these crimes because they want to, but because they have to. It's their last resort for survival.

Further Reading

• Headline/article taken from the Philippine Daily Inquirer (http://www.inquirer.net)
• Photos were taken from the Quezon City Jail

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