The Department of Social Welfare and Development has started rescuing Badjao and Aeta people begging on the streets of Metro Manila and other big cities during the Christmas season.
Secretary Erwin Tulfo ordered the start of the rescue operation last Nov. 18 in the National Capital Region alone on 100 Badjaos from Mindanao.
He assured that the indigenous people would not only be sent back to their provinces, but that the government would also provide them with livelihood.
“In the past, we only give food, a ferry ticket and small amount of money, and we will let them go home,” the DSWD chief said.
“You do not solve their problem. The problem is, they do not have food and the job or livelihood in their place. That’s why they keep on going back to the NCR or other highly urbanized cities to beg,” he added.
Each IP family that would be rescued by the DSWD shall receive P10,000, which they could use to start a business upon return to their home, and that each family would also be given food packs, family, and hygiene kits.
“President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants us to focus our attention on how we could provide the Ips with alternative source of income to discourage them from begging on the streets,” Tulfo said.
He vowed to help the Badjao and Aeta people, not only this Christmas, but throughout the year, so that they would stop from begging for alms.
Undersecretary Denise Bragas, who supervises the rescue operations of the IPs, said the agency would also conduct rescue operations on street children.
“In coordination po with the LGU, the DSWD will rescue the street kids. That is the order of Secretary Tulfo. Once a street child is rescued for the third time, we will no longer give him or her to his or her parents, instead the government shall take care of the child and send him or her to school,” she cited.
