According to Francesca Agius Vadalà, who was quoted in a report by The Times (September 17), animals in Malta are better off than some people in Manila. This view is highly prejudicial and extremely biased.

I do not understand what moved Ms Agius Vadalà to go to my home country but definitely she is not moved by Christian love towards others.

First, her experience of three weeks does not make her an authority on the economic and living conditions in the Philippines, she just happened to be exposed to a small fraction of it. As one blogger who had been there said, some of these people have their own small farms in their home provinces but choose to live in the city for some reason. Our Government has tried time and time again to relocate them giving them their own plots of land to build a home and garden, yet, they would sell those plots and flock back to the city.

Second, the photo shown was not even a typical home of these people who indeed make temporary shelters since they do not own the land on which they build but that of a “chicken hut or cage”.

Third, one has to wonder what is the motive of Ms Agius Vadalà in having such a deleterious and questionable truth written. As another blogger wrote, everything earned is being spent back to help these people, so could this be a case of the end justifying the means?

Indeed, if the ideal was the spirit of Christian charity towards others how can one do so in falsehood?

Didn’t Christ die for truth? There are several means to do good work without offending others’ sensibilities. We may be a poor nation in comparison to others but we are rich in Christian principles, which so many people in the world no longer believe in.

Lastly, Ms Agius Vadalà seems to have forgotten the stray cats that abound even in Malta. I doubt if she had seen one stray cat or dog in Manila.