We must put an end to‘charity-shaming’

THE ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in our people and left virtually no one in the middle. And there is no better example of this than the wonderfully unexpected phenomenon of the “community pantries” that have appeared all over Metro Manila and have spread to other parts of the country.

Credit for sparking what has turned into a national grassroots movement goes to a young woman named Ana Patricia Non, who set up what she jokingly referred to as a “pan-tree” — a spare table next to a tree in her Maginhawa neighborhood in Diliman, Quezon City — last week, offering a few vegetables and other staple food items and a simple message: “Take what you need; give what you can.”

The community self-help idea has spread with a speed rivaling that of the coronavirus. On Monday, our researcher spent a couple of hours trying to identify how many community pantries have been launched but gave up after counting about 120, as they seemed to be appearing faster than he could add them to the list. Areas in Palawan and southern Mindanao have created community pantries, and the movement shows no signs of slowing down.

The community pantries have attracted the attention of international media, and they display the best of our

Filipino character. We like to compliment ourselves for our bayanihan spirit of caring for one another but true demonstrations of it are more rare than most of us like to admit.

This movement is a wonderful validation of what we believe about ourselves and our countrymen and what we would like to be.

It is also no small thing that it is providing greatly needed assistance to many people who may be struggling to put food on the table. Neighborhood organizers’ creativity in gathering supplies to keep their community pantries stocked have also given opportunities to farmers and fisherfolk who have struggled to deliver their goods to markets. Some out of their own sense of charity have donated their surplus to community pantries while others have benefited from customers purchasing their goods to do the same. In some places, the sharing has even expanded beyond food, with other necessities such as diapers and personal hygiene products being donated.

Unfortunately, the old saying “no good deed goes unpunished” all too often turns out to be true, and for as much as the community pantry phenomenon has given Filipinos an opportunity to show the best side of our nature, it has also brought out the worst in some of us — our penchant for envy, or the “crab mentality.”

Not content to simply appreciate and admire the community pantry movement for what it is, some thoughtless people have sought to politicize the idea to foment discontent and disruption. Some have characterized it as a condemnation of government for “not doing enough” for citizens in need. That is unfair and disrespectful, not necessarily to the government, because it is proper to debate the government’s actions, but to the very people who have shared their time, effort and resources with their communities. The criticism implies that the people would not have compassion and concern for their neighbors under other circumstances, which is extremely uncharitable and cynical.

Even more shameful have been some reactions from the opposite side of the political spectrum — some from official sources such as the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) and law enforcement officials — attempting to “red-tag” community pantries, dismissing them as a propaganda tool of the rebellious “left.” To be clear, such a misuse of charity should be aggressively stopped if it is discovered. However, to insinuate or make outright accusations that community pantry organizers are engaged in criminal activity is reckless and mocks the very spirit of Filipinos that even the highest offices of government have publicly praised, and deserves the harshest censure.

There is never any shame in helping others, but there is nothing but shame in politicizing it, no matter where one sits on the ideological spectrum. The community pantries have shown that we, as a people, can be better than this.

“There is never any shame in helping others, but there is nothing but shame in politicizing it, no matter where one sits on the ideological spectrum. The community pantries have shown that we, as a people, can be better than this.