Give one, give all

Everytime I miss the green light in any of our major intersections, I get annoyed for two reasons. First, it’s annoying enough that you have to stop for the red light and, second, you get swarmed with street urchins selling sampaguita garlands or simply pestering you to give them loose change. (Coming from NAIA II the other week, a little boy of about five stood outside my car window and started harassing me to give him some dollars – not pesos, take note – but dollars.)

I have to admit that I get irritated whenever those kids hound me from both sides of the car window (especially those who try to make out your figure though the tinted glass) because they just wouldn’t leave you in peace. For about two minutes there, you are at their mercy (pay up or the hounding wouldn’t stop) because there’s nothing much you can do since you are just struck there behind the wheel and you are hostage to them.

There was time I would hand out coins to the sampaguita vendors – without me bothering to get the garlands. But based from experience, you can’t give alms to just one because once the others see that, they start flocking to your car and begin pounding on your window and there’s no end to that until the light turns green, which gives you the signal to speed away.

And so now, whenever I have to stop for a red light I pretend to be texting or I turn on the radio full blast, start shaking my head to the music – like I’m oblivious to all of them outside.

I’ve simply just stopped giving alms. . . especially after a friend from the DSWD told me not to because those kids are part of an organized syndicate.

Ruth Cabal confirmed this in her segment last Tuesday night (actually early Wednesday morning) in Reporter’s Notebook.

What is alarming according to Ms. Cabal’s report is the fact that some of these kids have parents, but have been kidnapped by syndicates and are now made to beg in the streets of Metro Manila. Those who do not meet the quota for the day are beaten up or turned into human ashtrays. Their parents meanwhile cry at night – hoping for the day they would come back.

One eight-year-old boy who had been rescued still bears the wounds and other telltale marks of how he suffered in the hands of the syndicate bosses. His personality also changed. He’s become withdrawn and – to the mother’s horror – now swears and curses like a stevedore.

It’s a good thing the mother decided to file a case with the National Bureau of Investigation. I can only hope something concrete comes out of that. Maybe Ruth Cabal should follow that up and breathe down the necks of the NBI people until they find the faces behind this syndicate.

At the moment, I don’t get to see that many street children anymore at intersections. Maybe because we don’t have intersections anymore, but U-turn slots instead, courtesy of Bayani Fernando.

But there are still urchins scattered all over the metropolis – like that "(million) dollar kid" near the NAIA II.

It would really take a lot of effort and political will from the various government agencies to help rid Metro Manila of street children. But with media watching – like Reporter’s Notebook (Ruth Cabal, go hound them!) – I’m hoping concrete steps would be taken to finally solve this decades old problem.

Papal Namesakes

If you’ll find time to make an informal survey, you’ll probably discover that there are a lot of young Filipino men today aged 27 or 24 who are named John Paul (or Juan Paulo) and with the nickname. JP. I guess we can attribute this to the fact that the beloved Pope John Paul II was installed in Vatican 27 years ago in 1978 and that his first visit as Pope to the Philippines was 24 years ago in 1981.

The late Pope was obviously so well-loved in this country that Filipino parents started naming their newly-born sons after him during those two significant years of his Papacy.

And so now, I guess we should expect baptismal registries of Catholic churches to have one popular name: Benedict – after Pope Benedict XVI.

A couple of years from now, we’ll have a lot of kids running around in parks, churches and malls answering to pet names like Ben, Ben-Ben, Dick and Dick-Dick.