This happened on my way home after Philo class.
I was on the southbound LRT 1 train home. I live a bit far from Ateneo (six stations from D. Jose, add nine for the trip from Katipunan to Recto), so I felt relieved that the train wasn’t full and I was able to sit. After I sat, two suspicious guys “from” FEU and UST got in.
I thought that the two guys were particularly suspicious because their IDs didn’t matchtheir uniforms. One guy was wearing the UST Engineering uniform but wore the ID for the College of Accountancy. This was really sketchy since UST has strict rules regarding uniform. Also, the other guy was wearing the FEU uniform but his ID claims that he’s taking BS Information Technology, which only FEU-East Asia College offers and had a totally different uniform.
I’ve had several encounters with pickpockets so I’m really alert when I’m commuting but this pair wasn’t targeting me, they were targeting the girl beside me who, after listening to their conversations a little later, owned an iPhone 5. Fortunately, the girl may have been aware of their plans and she was able to get down without losing her phone, I think/hope.
Even though I felt so sure that they were pickpockets (they even chatted about the day’s catch!), I didn’t report them to anyone because I really wasn’t and I had no proof. I went down Vito Cruz feeling frustrated that I wasn’t able to anything and that these people actually exist.
I’m pretty sure that no one actually wants or prefers to be a thief. No normal child would tell people that when they grow they want to be a pickpocket, or a hold-upper, or worse, an ex-convict plunderer-then-Mayor. No, I honestly doubt that. I think that all this stems from the need to survive, to make ends meet and the desperation that poverty brings, and in worse cases, just plain greed.
But all this happened at 1 in the afternoon. I understand how difficult it is to get a job these days, especially for the less fortunate who weren’t able to get a decent education, but anything’s better than stealing, right? To make matters worse, these people even bragged about “their day’s catch”, openly talking because they knew that no one would report them. They were proud of what they do.
It’s scary that something like this happens in broad daylight; that something as sick as this is a reality and is almost acceptable in most parts of society. It inspires a culture where taking what isn’t yours, what someone else had to work hard for, is not out of the norm. I understand that these are only material possessions but these “material things” are also fruits of the hard work of some people, things that they too had to strive for. And these don’t only happen in the streets, thievery is everywhere: even at work, in school, and sadly, in the government.
I think that this is a reality that should concern everyone. As much as we need help to control these people’s crimes, they themselves need help. These people are, in their own ways, victims. Again, I go back to my first point that nobody ever wanted to be a thief. I think that it is society’s nurture (or failure to nurture) that made them be this way and given any opportunity, they would choose to be otherwise.
Dr. Garcia says that the purpose of reflection is to be able to act better, and that one of the goals of philosophy, or “philosophical people” per se, as revealed by Paul Ricœur, is to help attain a “utopia for humanity”. How do we help these people find their beatitudo even in our small ways? And if something likethis ever happens again, what should I/we do?
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