The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will work with local government units (LGUs) to rescue children and indigenous peoples (IPs) roaming the streets to beg for food or money, especially during the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
This was announced by Secretary Erwin Tulfo during the flag-raising ceremony at the DSWD Central Office in Quezon City on Monday, Oct. 3.
“Yung mga street children, nandiyan na naman po sila, magpa-Pasko. Yung mga Badjao, yung mga Aeta na kababayan po natin, we need to rescue these people and bring them where they came from (There are many street children again. The Badjaos, the Aetas who are our also countrymen, we need to rescue these people and bring them where they came from),” Tulfo said.
“Pero ginagawa na po natin ito every year. Year in, year out. Magpa-Pasko, ganun na yung procedure. Ang problema, binibigyan lang natin ng band-aid solution (But we are doing this every year. Year in, year out. This has been the procedure during Christmas. The problem is, we are only doing a band-aid solution),” he added.
Tulfo pointed out that it is necessary to address the root of the problem.
“Ang problema po kaya sila pumupunta dito yung mga indigenous natin, yung mga Badjao, because of the fact na wala silang hanapbuhay pag-uwi nila sa Mindanao. Wala naman silang hanap-buhay pag-uwi nila sa Central Luzon o Zambales. We need to fix that. We need to give them something na pangkabuhayan po nila para hindi na po sila pabalik-balik dito. Meron ho silang makakain, meron ho silang trabaho (The problem is that our indigenous peoples come here, the Badjao people, because they have no job when they go home to Mindanao. They (Aetas) don’t have a job when they go home to Central Luzon or Zambales. We need to fix that. We need to give them something to support them so they don’t have to go back and forth here. They have to have something to eat, they have to have a job),” he said.
Tulfo said the DSWD will also coordinate with the LGUs to register the IPs with the local civil registrar.
“I have already coordinated with some LGUs, simula po ngayon we will try as much as possible, ipa-rehistro po yang mga indigenous natin, ipa-rehistro po sa local civil registrar para meron pong mga birth certificate yan (starting now, we will try as much as possible, register our indigenous peoples, register them with the local civil registrar so that they have birth certificates),” he explained.
“Daang libo po na mga kababayan natin na mga indigenous na wala pong birth certificate. Kaya hindi po nakakakuha ng benepisyo. Yung mga nakakakuha lamang ay yung may mga birth certificate (There are hundreds of thousands of our countrymen who are indigenous people who do not have a birth certificate. So they cannot receive benefits from the government. The only ones who get it are those who have birth certificates),” he added.
Moreover, Tulfo said the DSWD was instructed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to give help to the “poorest of the poor PWDs (persons with disability).”
“Hahanapan po natin yan ng pondo but we must and should help these people, lalo na’t magpa-Pasko (We will find funds for that, but we must and should help these people, especially this Christmas,” he added.