EDITORIAL - Ending loitering

One positive outcome of the campaign against loiterers or tambays, now repackaged as a campaign against ordinance violators, is that it highlighted the fact that there are so many idlers in this country.

It is true that certain idlers are up to no good, engaging in vandalism, petty thievery and the flesh trade, pushing drugs, and creating other forms of trouble in the neighborhood. In many cases, however, a person loiters or becomes an idler because he or she is out of a job or out of school, and has no place to hang out for legitimate recreational activities to while the time away. This is why nearly all the loiterers rounded up in this campaign are from impoverished communities.

To address this aspect of the tambay phenomenon, the government is taking one appropriate approach – not the mass roundup of shirtless men and their detention in facilities already packed to the ceiling with inmates, but the provision of free skills training through programs offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

TESDA has over 200 training modules for skills related, among others, to construction, automotive and land transportation, metals and engineering, agriculture, information and communication technology, health services, tourism and the restaurant business.

For the “Build Build Build” infrastructure program alone, the government will need an estimated 200,000 construction workers, according to TESDA officials. With many of the country’s skilled workers now overseas, more people need to be trained and ready for hiring as 75 flagship infrastructure projects under Build Build Build are rolled out. Tourism is another area where more workers are increasingly needed as communities discover the sector’s capability to spur local economic growth.

Tambays also go shirtless outside their homes because they live in houses that are almost as cramped as police detention facilities. All over the country, however, there is a lack of public places where residents can engage in sports, jog or stroll or simply breathe some fresh air on a park bench, away from the stifling confines of a one-room shanty.

Lawmakers concerned about the human rights of loiterers can address this lack of livable public spaces by allotting funds for more parks or sports venues. Combined with the free skills training programs, something good can come out of this crackdown on loiterers.