Meet Benito

Here is one of those little stories that tug at the heart (don’t mean to sound chummy, though, for this is hardly happy ending stuff). Benito, eight, was one of those kids that Angel Locsin briefly came across in her visit to Payatas around three weeks ago. Yesterday, again, I tagged along Samakana organizers who fetched Benito in Payatas. He just came back from working the trash and was all greasy (”parang taong-grasa,” says one of the nanays), and took a bath, excited to attend a “children’s workshop” that he had been invited to. It was to be his first time out of the dumpsite — a brief respite from the backbreaking work in the trash. In truth, those few hours with Angel Locsin were mere “pakunsuwelo” for Benito and the Payatas kids. The real work of fighting for a decent society who does not forces kids like Benito to do what they do remains.