CSWDO, BCPO send home Badjaos
Fifteen adult and two minor Badjaos were rounded up last Tuesday (Sept. 13) by personnel of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) and City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) and sent home to Angeles, Pampanga after finding them begging along city streets.
The CSWDO provided cash assistance intended as transportation expenses for the 17 individuals and sent them home through public transport.
According to CSWDO Officer-In-Charge Liza Bulayungan, the act put teeth into Presidential Decree 1563 or the Anti-Mendicancy Law of 1978; where a “person with no visible and legal means or support or legal employment, is physically able to work but neglects to apply to some lawful calling and instead begging as a means of living. The law also deems begging as punishable, for all mendicants and exploited children eight years old and below.
The Badjaos, Bulayungan said, were profiled by their office and oriented on the city’s policy against begging; thus should be prevented from traveling to Baguio and beg for financial support.
The Local Government of Angeles, Pampanga was also sent a letter for an update and a reiteration of social services extension to their citizens. A continuing monitoring and the provision of social services shall also be done, Bulayungan said.
Beggars would frequent the city’s main streets and transfer location when prevented by social workers, or police men. They may also go to other venues or to neighboring communities; but would come back, Bulayungan related.
In 2019, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong created an executive order for the creation of an anti-mendicancy task force. In addition to the CSWDO and BCPO, the offices involved were that of Councilor Arthur Allad-iw, Department Interior and Local Government (DILG), Bureau of Jail and Penology (BJMP), Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Philippine Information Agency (PIA).
The task force met recently to oversee activities as to anti-mendicancy in the city. Each representative proffered services as his group or agency allows; to abate mendicancy in the city. – JGF
