The Family-Responsible Very Young Brothers

They are still in their teens: Fritz born 17th of February 1992, and Veil born 18th of July 1993. Nevertheless, they already take on the responsibility of being wage earners for their family, to shore up their mother’s income as a school teacher and help support the education of a younger sister. Their father, with slight physical incapacity and harsh attitude towards them all, has for many years now been the burden they carry on their shoulders.

Life was much happier and easier when the siblings were yet children. The family had a home in Bulacan, 594 km (370 miles) north of Cebu, and all amenities like water and electricity were practically free because father was gainfully employed in a responsible position in a cement production plant.

There came a time, however, that his job and similar categories were put into review to be handled henceforth by college graduates. Apprehensive that the documents he had previously submitted would be scrutinized and found to be wanting, he was compelled to tender his resignation. Family fortunes dwindled from then on, due to failed ventures one after another, and alongside went down his good nature.

The whole family went back to Cebu when Fritz was around six years of age and Veil around five. Their father had by this time made a habit of physically abusing them, sometimes in public, which developed the boys’ increasingly ill feelings of anger and resentment. Slight misdeeds sometimes committed by adolescents like them, like for instance going out with friends or staying out late in the evening, inevitably brought severe humiliation and brutal treatment.

Fritz, the more sociable and amiable of the two, had already experienced being punched in the body. Veil, younger yet more confrontational, had once undergone punishment in front of their house, out on the street, in full view of numerous passers-by.

The boys have stopped schooling altogether, Veil right after finishing high school, and Fritz in the second year of the course in Electronics and Communications Engineering. A bit of good fortune smiled on them when they both found employment together in a home-based internet marketing business. This gave them a huge chance of helping in the financial load solely undertaken by their mother, and provided time and distance from the heavy-handed maltreatment of their father.

There is perhaps a ray of hope present for their family as a whole. After suffering from a mild stroke, the father is now regularly visited at home by a layman-minister from his congregation, which is different from that of the rest of the family-members, and he routinely confesses and takes communion. It is hoped that real self-reproach leading to repentance and contrition will come soon, to bring back the spiritual health of the person as well as that of his family.