The P16 billion in taxes paid by the people was given to that body so it can run after the Communist Party, not community pantries.

So something is terribly wrong when a general berates a millennial because she fed her neighbors. There is no valor in that.

It is also unfair to our soldiers, because one officer’s perceived act of bullying does not endear our Armed Forces to the people they have sworn to protect.

But to the credit of our soldiers, they know that fighting hunger does not make one an armed combatant. Many have demonstrated their belief in this by sending community pantries reinforcements of food.

The enemy is not this petite woman who pushed a kariton of vegetables. If there’s one adversary that requires our generals’ attention, then these are the foreign gunboats pushing deeper into our territory and shooing our fishermen away.

Patreng’s act launched a thousand community pantries. That is not a crime. The real lawbreakers are those who have launched a thousand ships to empty our seas of food that should have been ours.

Someone called her Satan. But to millions who believe in her cause, and are taking it up, she has become the Patreng saint of Maginhawa.

It warms the heart that for a divided nation, so often torn by issues even trivial, we have finally found a common cause.

Community pantries are the civic spaces which are not only stations of compassion but also showcase the best in the Filipino. Bawal ang haters doon. But on second thought, the more they hate, the more the people give.

When we see socialists and socialites, the suits and the shoeless, soldiers and yes, even subversives agree on one thing, the future can only be bright.(###)