Today, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Child Jesus and on the side we, once again, host a famous extravaganza called the Sinulog. To all of you, brothers and sisters, Pit Senyor. Indeed, while we pray in the Basilica and dance on the parade route, let us endeavor never to tarnish our celebration with anything untoward. We need to put up a united front to ensure that our visitors will, while they sojourn our city, remember the warmth and friendliness of our people.
In the last few days leading to today, the streets have been littered with a seemingly growing horde of mendicants. At certain cross roads, they also converge as if in ambush position. Each time a PUJ stops by or a car halts, swarms of people, many in indistinguishable tongue, approach the passengers of these vehicles begging for, what else, but alms. The sight of a woman coddling a child whose face is half covered by untidy piece of cloth is heart rending. It is a trick so to speak that never fails to attract both pity and attention. And out of our well known generosity, we deem it very worthwhile to give.
When the late Pres. Ferdinand Marcos reigned supreme, he, in one of his peripheral visions, saw that begging had become more of a vice rather than an option. Mendicancy, to him, was ugly, because as mostly practiced, it was anchored upon the good nature of man. Begging thus became some kind of a profession. It assaulted industriousness and laid waste the nobility of earning a day’s keep with a day’s honest toil.
The unlamented strongman knew that our country could not rely upon begging. To combat it, he issued a presidential decree penalizing both the beggar and the alms giver. It was his theory that a threat of a sanction hovering over the head of a giver would make him think twice before really giving..
For decades, that law has not reached its much-ballyhooed objective. We have not approximated the rationale for which it was originally written. On the contrary, beggars, for a whole lot of excuses, continue to grow in number. And they know now how to pick the spot for begging! They multiply with each passing year. Mendicancy, I dare say, is even stronger today, maybe because man, being kind by nature, always gives alms.
Begging is a very simple thing to do. It requires no college diploma nor demands a particular training and expertise. Compared to being employed, begging is a breeze. So many people rather beg than work.
What we have not realized (or shall I saw we refuse to realize?) is that each time we give alms to the beggar, we encourage indolence. When we dole out a peso to the beggar out of the abundance of our graciousness, we make life very easy for him and as a result we also make him lazy.
It is thus ideal that we cure this social problem. The legislation of many years ago did not work, the valid threat of a sanction notwithstanding.
The solution is in our hearts too. All of us, and that means everybody without exception, may he be a scion of a multi-millionaire or a son of a poor farmer, have to resist the urge to be gracious to beggars. True, we may suffer some pain each time we turn a blind eye to the beggars, but we can be comforted by the fact that we help him steel his nerve to find work.
The time we address this problem is really very brief. On a sustained basis, we do not need 30 days. If for just a short period of just one month we refuse to drop a centavo in the coin bank of beggars, we force them to value the nature of real work and in the process, shun begging. With no beggars going around our city during and after the Sinulog, we shall be truly blessed!