The Manila Social Welfare Department and the Manila Police District Raxabago police station have conducted joint operations to ease the presence of a large number of mendicants on city streets.
Led by MSWD chief Asuncion Fugoso and MPD police station 1 commander P/Lt. Col. Rosalino Ibay, the operatives went to Barangay 123 in Tondo, Manila, a known staging area for the mendicants who appear during the "ber months" to ask alms from motorists.
Ibay said the mendicants, said to be "Badjaos" as they dress like the indigenous people, take advantage of the Filipinos' generosity during the Christmas season of giving.
He said they are looking at reports that some residents of Manila are also profiting from the arrival of the mendicants by providing them quarters for P50 a day per head.
Accompanied by Barangay 123 chairperson Mario Banal, Fugoso and Ibay held a dialog with those renting the spaces to appeal to them not to be complicit in violating city ordinances against mendicancy and begging.
The mendicants had been seen frequenting roads such as R10, Roxas Boulevard, España, C.M. Recto, Legarda and Taft Avenue, among others.
As agreed upon, no arrest will be made as long as they would no longer accommodate the people who themselves are suspected as being used by syndicates who provide them transportation from the provinces.
Ibay told Daily Tribune that they discovered subhuman conditions at the places rented by the mendicants, with human wastes strewn everywhere, causing fear of disease outbreaks.
About 300 of the mendicants fled the barangay upon seeing the police, Ibay said.
Ibay recalled that in 2021, he led a raid on a similar dwelling rented by mendicants who came from Mindanao and even had fake health passes.
