CEBU, Philippines - “Ate, kuya ayaw laina inyong huna-huna, dili mi mga dautan ug dili mi kawatan manaygonay lang mi, okay here we go...”
This introduction heard from children and adults who rap their Christmas carols onboard jeepneys and buses is commonly heard nowadays as December approaches.
The public have different views – some pity them, while others think they are getting to be nuisance.
A law prohibits begging on the streets, but another law makes it difficult for the policemen to go after children as they end up being released and going back to their old ways.
In an interview with The FREEMAN, Cebu City Social Welfare and Services Officer Catherine Yso urged the public not to give money to carolers so they will not think of this as a legitimate source of livelihood.
“On-going among roving to stop them, akong hangyo lang pud nga dili gyud muhatag sa mga bata aron dili sila maengganyo,” Yso said.
Her office is already monitoring the city’s streets alongside the Cebu City Anti-Mendicancy Task Force. The streets or jeepneys and buses, Yso said, are not the proper places for caroling and doing so would be tantamount to begging.
She cited the Anti-Mendicancy Law or Presidential Decree No. 1563, which aims to address child exploitation by their parents or by a syndicate.
Article 59 of Presidential Decree 603 or the Child and Youth Welfare Code states that parents who exploit a child by using him or her, directly or indirectly, for purposes of begging and other acts which are inimical to his interest and welfare shall be liable for imprisonment and fine.
Yso said that if the public wants to help or give money to children or carolers in the streets, they must channel this through the proper government agencies like the DSWD or nongovernment organizations.
Despite laws being in place and authorities going after them, children and teenagers, however, continue to risk running after jeepneys and buses to do their caroling, all citing poverty as reason.
A 12-year-old from Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City, who is eldest among four siblings, said he stopped schooling right after his mother died in 2008 when he was still on his third grade at the Lahug Elementary School.
What he earns from his caroling he wants to save for Christmas so he and his siblings will have food for the special occasion, that is, if there is something left after they use the day’s earning to buy the day’s meal.
The child admits going to a mall to ask for some leftovers from customers of fast food chains.
Another street caroler, a 16-year-old from Barangay Mabolo, said there is quick money from caroling than in going to school or looking for a job. He once worked as an errand boy at a store in Carbon Public Market but stopped.
Meanwhile, people have differing views on the carolers.
Roel Blanco, 26, a resident of Barangay Punta Princessa and supervisor of a fastfood chain, criticizes the parents of these children.
“Maglagot man gud ko sa ginikanan nga sige lang og panganak nga wala maghuna-huna sa kaugmaon sa ilang anak,” he said. He added, though, that he feels pity for the children and seeing them makes him feel grateful for his own status in life.
Marissa Olongapo, 45, also pity these children whom she said obviously lack attention, love and care. Like Blanco, she is also blaming the parents.
But other commuters said most of the carolers are getting to be a nuisance, especially some who badmouth passengers who refuse to give them coins.
These children may be violating the law but for Cebu City Police Director Senior Superintendent Melvin Ramon Buenafe, the police could not just arrest these minors singing inside the jeepneys or buses.
Chief Inspector Julius Ompad, legal counsel of the Cebu Provincial Police Office who used to be assigned at the Mabolo Police Station for 11 years, said they arrested several minors some years back but only to release on the DSWD’s orders.
The children and their parents were made to undergo a counseling program but three weeks after the counseling, the same children could be seen again singing on the streets. And the cycle goes on. (FREEMAN)