Brothers and sisters, the 10-hour hostage taking by a security guard in a San Juan City mall last week was alarming. Armed with a gun and a grenade, the hostage-taker held some 55 people captive—most of them being mall employees. He only set his hostages free after the heads of the security agency that fired him apologized. The security agency said that it did not take away the hostage-taker’s job; it only transferred him to another location.
Many of us cannot sympathize with the former guard. If he lost his job, people say he could still find another one and he has no reason to endanger the lives of others just so he can express his grievances. Cruelty can never be justified, but if we broaden our understanding on what happened and leave out our perception of this incident as if it’s part of an “action-packed drama,” we get to see the cruel experiences suffered by the former security guard. We do not condone hostage taking, but let us not consent to the abuse that ordinary Filipino workers, like him, have to go through.
If we recall from the news reports, one of the former guard’s wishes is for the superiors of the security agency that employed him to apologize and ask for his forgiveness because of the way they treat him like trash—thrown away after being used. He also challenged his former superiors to resign, in his desire for them to experience how it feels to lose a job. Again, if we broaden our understanding, most likely he was pushed by his desperation, but any attempt to harm other people is the wrong approach. It is easy for most of us to condemn those who are forced for place the law in their hands—like the hostage-taker in Greenhills—because we don’t know what hopelessness means for someone who lost his job. Surely, many people like him experience the same situation wherein their lives, as well as their families’ lives, are placed at the mercy of employers. Nobody wants to lose his or her livelihood. The country’s employment system is truly unfair to people who have no other means in life but their livelihood, especially those who have no education, and those without influence who live at the fringes of society. They are the workers who can be retrenched anytime, when business slows down.
In the encyclical Caritas in veritate, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said that violating the dignity of human work results to poverty, and this happens because work opportunities are limited or because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it—such is the case of this poor security guard. These circumstances transgress not only the rights of the workers for just wages, but also their right to their personal security, including members of their families. According to the book of Sirach 34:26-27, “To take away a neighbor’s living is to commit murder; to deprive an employee of wages is to shed blood. When one builds and another tears down, what do they gain but hard work?”
Brothers and sisters, although the employment rate in our country is getting high—almost 95 percent in 2019—this does not guarantee humane treatment of our workers. Many of them still lose their jobs because of ending five-month contracts. Again, we are not saying that the hostage-taker’s actions are just, but we should see that incident as an eye-opener. We should all start treating poor workers with dignity.
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