23September2005, 5:16PM Admitting office, National Mental Hospital, Mandaluyong City: Raul Victor Enriquez, a victim of  his own fate with methampehetamine hydrochloride, poor man's crack or "SHABU"

I found him flat on the street writhing in pain for not having food for several days; resorting to cheap crack or "shabu" to stave-off his hunger and emotional pains.

The movement was able to find him a home inside a mental institution where at least he will have access to free medical treatment, food, a roof and a clean bed to sleep-on.

What the government lacked, the government will get back. Problems compound.

We are searching for other members of his family, since his immediate relatives in the community dis-owned him and left him out on the streets to die.

He ran naked on the streets, that was an unusual site for a province such as ours.

Having only a pair of donated trousers and a t-shirt, we took him to an institution for the mentally deranged.

If any of our surfers is familiar with this man or would want to extend any form of assistance to him,  please contact (+63918) 3563831.

People who knew him told us that he was an intelligent and generous man who had no quarrels with anybody.

All that he wanted was his own tricycle to earn a decent living to survive while the rest of his kins live-off  from the fortunes of their family inheritance.

Funny how simple necessities of people are deprived and beaten by the usatiable appetite of a few, reminds me of people in power within the current stream of Philippine politics against the backdrop of an already starving nation.

The game of numbers

Although the battle of the both bureaucracies, the church and state, against the numbers game "huwetteng" has been temporarily won, the problem of the "disabled-income" from people whose daily survival depended on it remains if no immediate solution to the current spate of unemployment in the country will be found.

Not only the the poorest sector of the society has been deprived of earnings from this game of numbers but also the people in power, hanging on to the gambling operators for their additional sources of undeclared revenues.

These people need money, easy money, and they need it fast to sustain their lifestyles, their "families", their children, the daily dole-outs of their constituents and the political machineries that keeps them afloat.

And the immediate sources are pointing to another illegally solicited revenue that is "crack", you cut the supply of illegal funds for these people from the numbers game, huwetteng, then definitely the immediate source closest to our whole government institution would be the "crack deal".

Cut a hand and you stand to lose a head.

Does our society need more Rauls, we made them and many more will be knocking on our doors soon!

For the feeding frenzy for money due to the demands for what has been enjoyed from the huwetteng payolas (pay-offs) has been affected by the halt and the hunt is on to replenish that what has been lost -

  brace yourselves for its crack, as the light, at the end of the payola tunnel.

+ABOUT A MONTH AFTER I POSTED THIS ARTICLE, RAUL VICTOR ENRIQUEZ, SON OF GENERAL RUBEN ESCHARCHA (Deceased) DIED OCTOBER 11, 2005 AT THE PAVILLION 4 OF THE NATIONAL MENTAL PENITENTIORY AND HOSPITAL, MANDALUYONG CITY,
HIS REMAIN WAS LATER CREMATED BY RELATIVES.