Stalling the stimulus

Almost a thousand community pantries have sprouted all over the Phillippine archipelago since last April 14, when Ana Patricia Bernardo Non opened the first one at Maginhawa Street in Quezon City. As of last count posted by a group of Filipino mapmakers and geographers, there are now 817 of them in Luzon, 38 in the Visayas, 31 in Mindanao, and incredible but true: one in Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea.

In this season of cooperation, even the poor can be seen sharing what little they have to others through the community pantries. But why is Congress taking so long to do its part? I’m referring to the proposed bill providing “ayuda” – the Spanish word for aid – in the form of a P10,000 cash grant per family. This call has united the citizens across the entire social spectrum.