Bet Collector*

“Invert a cone.
And it shall figuratively reveal the real situation of the Filipino society;
Where the base is home for the majority of the people
and the apex covers the influential few.”

We are so much winning our time towards individual dominion over material things that sometimes we tend to be flippant to look for simple things, to capture big pictures from small lives, and create inspirational stories out of it. We forgot to understand what life has to offer. A life to nourish; a life worth living for and a love to give! These few thoughts reflect the true picture of the present times where it seems all people's after for a gain.

A mere fact that until now, wealth means power. The affluent wealthy are those who rule the society, while the powerless includes the poor majority, to the poor whose game is much different to that of the middle class, whose fight is virtually diverse to wealthy people. This seemingly boundless idealism of stratification has been given enough justice in light of appropriate character delineation.

Aling Rosing and her hanap-buhay depict the situation of the society’s modern day living. Searching for a stable battleground, struggling for survival. She used to focus her shutter to the typical slinging dwellers practicing “jueteng” as a hard day work; a “kubrador,” who steals the righteous time to fill up the bare minds, to quench tremendous thirst and to make appetites starving no more.

This craft has restored the profound concept of poverty many of us do not know. We only see the finely tuned poverty as it manifests but merely do not give a solitary concern to where it is deeply rooted.

Kubrador’s game in a tale of time coincided to making a bet or simply a gamble. In the midst of survival, they are left with few choices to that extent they have to grasp on the sharp edges of such unlawful activity -- taking these tags of sufferings not a hindrance to individual progression but rather the only way to track on.

On the other hand, the perspectives laid in their stories are praiseworthy as they unfailingly delivered face-to-face framing of the household. I used to see Aling Rosing watching a noon time show that showcases a definite choice between the sure tangible win and the unseen promising surprise.

Just like what her story would like to impart, that life is a game of assurance and uncertainty. Aling Rosing taught me to ponder on the varying human philosophy in terms of religion. A woman kubrador plays a mortal character of using her religion as a guide in her attempt to take camouflage in the reality -- that “jueteng” is nothing but a prohibited livelihood. Her stand until the end had never changed and she continued to deal with life even in strongest, weakest and whimsical mode of her game. She illustrated a humanistic loom of trials, tests and learning.

Her story is a mirror of human behavior in the verge of poverty and of course taking the real scores behind the untold stories of her considered profession as bet collector.