DepEd, DSWD urged to help rescue Badjaos off the streets

CEBU, Philippines - The head of the National Commission on Muslim-Filipinos in Central Visayas is urging officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to work together to bring Badjaos off the streets.

NCMF Regional Director Malo Manonggiring recommended that DepEd find means to educate the Badjaos to help them find means of livelihood and for DSWD to help them stop begging in the streets by providing them livelihood alternatives.

The Badjaos are under the eye of the National Commission for Indigenous People (NCIP) and not the NCMF.

Many of them still linger in the streets of Cebu City despite the enactment of the Anti-Mendicancy Law and a related city ordinance that prohibits begging.

In an attempt to interview some of them begging beside a church along General Maxilom Avenue, The FREEMAN found out that they could not understand or speak any other language aside from their native tongue.

The only Cebuano words they know are “Mangayo Kaon Para Bata” and “Dili Kasabut.”

Isabelita Ganub, head of the Cebu City Anti-Mendicancy Task Force, said they have rescued several Badjaos and other mendicants from the city’s streets, but they reportedly simply return several days after rescue.

She admitted that the city does not have concrete statistics on the number of Badjaos in Cebu City, but several children who have been rescued from the streets are now under the care of the Parian Drop-in Center. Some of them have reportedly already finished school.

Manonggiring said he received information that some young Badjaos are studying who are studying at the Mambaling Elementary School and the same is a sign of hope.

Manonggiring said the Badjaos will realize that begging is not right if they will receive proper education.

“These persons believed that it is our obligation to help them of their needs because they do not have education. The government should focus its attention to teach these persons to solve the problem,” Manonggiring said. — (FREEMAN)