Those mendicants did not just happen overnight. They are a product of a long process of which official neglect happens to play a large part. And when official neglect is mentioned, it almost always refers to the government.
The city ordinance making mendicancy unlawful was approved by a city council many of whose members do not even spend time walking sidewalks to take in the sights and smells of urban decay.
Maybe it was from the tinted windows of their airconditioned cars that they were taken aback by mendicants who brave getting crushed by traffic to siddle up and flash an open palm for twenty-five centavos that cannot even buy anything.
Maybe it was then that our good councilors suddenly drew inspiration to draw up what to them would be a brilliant piece of legislation, one that would go hammer and thongs at people who cannot eat even one decent meal a day.
True, there may be some of these mendicants who belong to begging syndicates, such an organized operation not being beyond the inherent ingenuity of the Filipino, an ingenuity that does not recognize economic or social barriers.
But if there are begging syndicates, then that should be a police problem that should not be allowed to become a social question. There is a distinct solution for every distinct problem. The trouble with the city is that it is confused, as always.
Do not ever believe that it is the safety or welfare of the mendicants that is bothering the city officialdom. What is of concern to the city is the bad image the sight of mendicants project to the world.
The anti-mendicancy ordinance is a wild shot at the moon. Societies great and small have failed through the ages to get rid of the poor who, at one point or another, will be driven to beg. How can an insignificant city council expect to change things otherwise.
Poverty is a preordained fate of people. The spiritually-inclined would try to explain the poor away euphemistically by saying God loves them so much that He made so many of them. True or not, you do not outlaw them. Instead you try to deal positively with their presence.