DSWD should work to keep Badjaos in their communities

“DSWD eyes zero street kids in Metro,” the Inquirer reported last August 10. This objective is quite commendable if fully implemented.

However, utmost priority should be given to the lowly Badjaos “to liberate them from (a life of) indignity,” as Social Welfare Secretary Dinkee Soliman said.

The Badjaos are a familiar sight in Metro Manila nowadays with their tattered, unwashed and traditional getups. Coming to Manila just to ask for alms is heartbreaking and pitiful.

The DSWD should dissuade these Badjaos and other ethnic groups from flocking to Metro Manila in droves. Instead, the government should improve their lives by giving them better education and livelihood opportunities in their respective communities.

Only then, I suppose, can we partly solve the perennial and nagging problem of street children and their families in Metro Manila and elsewhere.

—PEDRO REFUERZO JR., 6737 Taylo St., Makati City