The Invitation

In my 28 years of existence, any member of my family has never been invited to the Barangay Hall due to a neighbor’s complaint. We even lived in a slum area, a community wherein 24 hours there are very active people roaming around or standing by the streets. And I have lived that type of neighborhood in thirteen long years. Never, as in never in my life we got involved to a commotion, that’s why during that time, my mother and our family have never experienced disrespect from anyone.

I came up of this topic due to an approach that our neighbors have given us lately. It started when we began the house work a week ago. We’ve been planning to make this house-improvement it’s because our humble home was not done yet. There are parts that still need some final touch or plastering to avoid water from coming in if there are heavy rains. The exterior walls are also in need of the said work. This requires extended setup that may overlap to our neighbors’ property or private space. Well, of course, we already did ask permission beforehand to avoid conflicts. The only problem is that these neighbors have this certain attitude that most of us Filipinos have, Crab Mentality or Insecurity. I hate to say this but we’ve been surrounded by these people, which led for the other to escalate it to the Barangay Officers for a “trespassing complaint”. How brilliant! Because of this, I would love to place a cape and a crown on them to pay tribute for their foolishness!

After the argument and throwing of accusations, both parties haven’t come up of any agreement since the disgraceful neighbor was being a brat. Thus, the father sent another invitation which is set later in the afternoon. I don’t know what they wanted to discuss over with but I would definitely have to have an open mind to weigh things over, like any other educated and mature person does. BOOM!

I was planning to get a hold of an attorney to learn more on how we fair in this situation in terms of The Philippine Law. Any referrals, peeps? That would be greatly appreciated.