Lame Attitude of Squatters

Almost the same thing happened to my dad one time he went to his client to deliver their orders. I was with my dad at that time. My dad's really not good in speaking Tagalog since he's originally used to speaking in Fookien/Chinese. You those, those broken Tagalog sentences. He also had this feature that simply screams to the world "HEY! I'M CHINESE!" Anyway, we were parked and he placed the car in reverse since we are about to leave the place. As we are moving down the parking area, a kid suddenly appeared at the back of our car. My dad stopped just in time. We are sure that we didn't bumped into the kid since there's no impact of any sort and dad's moving real slow. Beside, my dad saw the kid and immediately stopped. What surprised me is that people gathered at the back of our car looking at the rear. I KNOW something was going on. I told my dad to stay in the car and lock the doors while I go down and check on the kid. To our surprise he was covered in "blood" or what supposed to be "is" blood. The color kinda resemble blood but the texture definitely wasn't. He wasn't moving. Suddenly, around 4-6 people gathered around us (together with the kid's father) and started screaming, prattling that they saw my dad hit the kid. Eventually a police came and said to me that they will charge my dad "reckless driving" or something. I stood by my ground. My dad's 70+ but he can drive real well. He's real careful and I'm quite sure nothing happened. I KNEW something fishy happened. The father went to my dad's side and urged him to move out. I told him not to move an inch from the driver seat in return. While they are prattling on and on about the possible charges, this is our dialogue: Me: Shouldn't we rush the kid to the hospital? Dad: No! We need to settle it here! Me: There's BLOOD on the kid! You want your child to run out of blood (I mean come on, if there's an emergency and there's blood, the first thing a person would do is rush the victim to the hospital. I'm CONFIRMED it's fake when they didn't mention anything about the blood) Police: Then what? You and your dad will run away when we tkae the kid to the hospital? Me: No~ We take the kid to the hospital using our car. As soon as we do that, then I'll talk with you can these "charges" and "cases". You can follow us if you want to make sure that we don't run away Dad/Police: *no comment* Me: WELL?! *irritated* What more do you want? Money? We'll pay for the hospital bill if needed. There's no way in hell we'll shell out money WITHOUT taking the kid to the hospital! Then at that moment, the kid stood up, said he's ok and told the people not to worry. After that incident, I was so agitated and told my dad to be extra careful when going to places near the squatters' area. We also complained the so-called police at the nearest precinct and true enough, they don't have any officer in that name.

Hi Graceekwenx Unfortunately we humans are too occupied and filled with our own ego. We do not care to realize our faults and the best and easiest comes to handing over the blame to anyone. What you mention too is a result of this. No one thinks about the fact that driving is not only his/her right but also he or she is responsible for safer driving. The teens are the best examples. Many teens would drive breaking all rules here in India. And when a mishap happens... well, I cannot and should not be blamed. The one with the bigger vehicle is responsible for this accident is the common norm here. Examle - If a pedestrian is hit even by a bicycle driver, the blame should go to to the bicycle driver and not the pedestrian. And the onlookers too take the sides of the person with the smaller vehicle. The belief - if you have a bigger vehicle and you afford it, you have sufficient to pay me for whomsoever's fault

For lack of proper education, these people resort to tactics they learned in the streets and they're using their poor state of living as their reasons to what they've doing wrong. Like they're stealing something because they have nothing to eat and so on. It is all in the matter of thinking and deciding how they would get money fast in a cleanest possible way.

I understand what you have been through, although not all people are bad in those communities, there are quite a few rotten ones, yes there are times that they turn that gimmick into some kind of family business

Not all squatters do have the same attitude, but some do have that kind of lame attitude. I don't want to offend them, but sometimes their attitude sucks. What else can we do, That's the Squatter peoples attitude. I think that kind of incident is another "modus" of people so that they can extort money. They will say that it's okay but then later they will follow you like a dog.

I've heard of those unlikely incidents in our place, too. Somehow, the parents of these kids would push them to do these stuff just to get money. They would intentionally get their kid bumped by passing cars and some wouldn't even allow you to bring the kid to the hospital, and will just ask for compensation.

Wow making their children as baits to victimized the car owners. I guess that is indeed an old trick I heard a long time ago and I am just surprised this is still being done by these people. I really hope that the child would not incur much damaged if he keeps on doing this thing again and again. I think there will come a time that this kid might just be hurt badly.

If I am correct, if a person is not walking in a pedestrian lane and gets an accident, it is not the drivers fault. But if a person walking on a pedestrian lane and gets an accident, then it is the drivers fault. Which in this case I think it is the first one. I don't think the kid just plain stupid, he did that intetionally. I mean if the technician said that it already means something. And besides, why would they talk like that, they should be at least thankful you rush him to a hospital. I for one do not like the squatters, to be honest they are more rich than I am, if you could see some of their houses, they have tv and others. Oh well, it is just my opinion..

Yeah, we have people that do that here. Many years back, the person that lived next to my Grandmother, said he got hurt on the job. He claimed that he hurt his thumb. Well, he won a lawsuit against the company and got thousands and thousands of dollars. He sat at home not working. He fixed the roof of the house, painted it, put on a deck, replaced fence in the back yard.... but he couldn't work. He hurt his hand. WHATEVER!!! Lying worthless people. They shouldn't get anything. No work, no food. Starve them out. They want to eat, they can work a job. Do something that benefits society.

The level of guilt in any accident must be based on the actual situation and evidences with other witnesses. It is easy to blame any parties especially when we are dealing with the damages. But, in your case, if that 11-year old boy is a consistent patient in that hospital, then it is a bare proof that he is either clumsy or just risking his life to gain monetary for their family. You will know the course once the other side are finding problems that are not evident to support their statements. OF course, even the driver are very careful we really cannot predict such accidents especially if it is planted or framed right? the only thing we can do is to have justification proofs to support and in your case, very kind enough to bring that kid in the hospital regardless whose faults are. Thus, an 11-year old boy is quite knowledgeable enough to know that he must be careful enough to any accidents especially if vehicular. The fact that he has already experienced the same vehicular accident reports before, then, it must have served him a lesson by far for him to be cautious enough unless he is really doing that things for some purpose we do not know. The saying is " Experience is the best teacher" he admit it or not, he learned it to be aware at all, despite of his clumsiness, still not an excuse for him not to be aware and in caution. Not either a reason from his family that they are working, they should have taken the full responsibilities knowing their child at all rather anybody else and have secured that he is safe at all times. The greater lesson for this is not in your side but for the family and the 11-year old boy. I would understand if that kid is only a toddles till 7 years old, but at 11 of age is too old not to be aware and cautious of this things especially if he is afraid of what had happened to him before. The lame attitude of other people are unpredictable, however, the best thing to do is that you know your rights and guided with conscience had exerted your will in accordance to your believes for good faith. For those only taking advantage of the said situation, in bad faith maybe, let them take their course to learn their mistakes.. Happy lotting

I knew that. When me and my friends were riding our vehicle and passing by some streets in Quezon City, I was warned by them to take extra care driving through because some residents along the road might push some kids towards us and demand some money. So, next time, take care while driving in those places.

At this point I just believe that this couldn't be an accident and it was done it purpose. Not unless if the kid is really stupid enough to be really clumsy. This scene is not new to me so I am not surprise about this. I've even seen this on teleserye so no wonder if this will be happen in real life situation as well for the sake of money.

I can somehow relate to this incident, this happens about two or three years ago. My uncle was driving somewhere in Pasig city and a kid suddenly crossed the street and bumped the passenger side. My uncle is very aware that the kid intentionall hit his vehicle. Good thing he is not driving that fast. He rushed him to the hospital. No fractures, no bruises. He proactively wants to give money to the parents but to his surprise, they are asking for more. There's no harm done, my uncle felt that the family is so poor that they will result to this scam that is why he wants to give them money. But he did not expect that they will abuse him. He was really disappointed and frustrated on what happened. He told the family that if they are asking for more compensation, they can file a police case and he will be willingly accompany them. My uncle did not give any money to the parents and reported this to his "kumpare" in police department. He was told that it is a usual scam specially in that area. Parents used their children to earn money even if they risk their children's life.

I understand how you feel. I can just imagine how concern you are trying to secure the kid if hes ok or not. When all of the sudden you realize that they making some foolish tricks on you to get money. i just don't understand why the have to do some illegal things just to earn money. As far as i know, there are a lot of jobs that are available to everyone. They just want to earn money in a fast way and not thinking that what they are doing is wrong. I also don't know if the parents of the child was aware of this action or maybe the parents itself were the once teaching the child on doing that thing. What i hate most on the attitude of squatters is that they keep on blaming the government on the problems of poverty and when you visit them in there homes, they just playing cards and drinking. on the next they, the steal money from somebody who is working so hard for there family.

For instances like this, when a car/driver hits a pedestrian, I always put the blame on the driver (even when he's in the right of way), as he should be the one with the means to avoid any accident. Specially if he is driving the bigger vehicle. Now, having said (written) that, I too would despise the parents of this kid. First off, if they are just using this as an M.O., then how dare they put their kid in harm's way! And how dare they put in their own issues about work over and above this incident!

The squatters having less in life-although some are professional squatters with homes elsewhere and with complete and modern appliances-tend to look at themselves as always being at the short end of the stick. With this thinking, they would assume that everything should go their way even if they are the ones that created the problems in the first place. Those illogical and hard-to-reason with squatters gain confidence in doing what they want because of the support and sympathy offered by the local officials. In the long run, when the local government now wants them removed, they will cry for harassment, compensation and their rights?! They really make me laugh and confused at the same time. To make it clear, I am not anti-poor :)