Organized mendicancy is not strange

Officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development recently asked the public not to give alms to street children or promote the culture of mendicancy. Just like us, I know the hearts of the DSWD officials are in the right place, but I tend to think that their thinking caps are not “ON.”

Asking the public not to give alms is tantamount to denying ourselves.

To begin with, we are a compassionate society with very deep religious beliefs about mercy, generosity, kindness etc. From birth we are passed on, raised up and educated not only to know such beliefs but also to practice them. We are a people who love children, many of us have our own children and we all prioritize the care and upbringing of our children.

How then can we ignore street kids whose clothes are not even worthy of being used as rags in our homes, how can we turn them away when we have memorized that “heaven is made of children such as these.” How do we shut off our hearts from helping these “kids” when we spend hundreds of thousands to clothe, feed, educate, house and love our own because we are “parents” to every child? How do we calm the gut-wrenching reminder that we have been blessed in order to be a blessing to others?

How can we possibly turn off, tune out, or simply ignore a malnourished woman and child with outstretched hands asking for food or change after you’ve stepped out of church or shopping from a mall?

How do we ignore a barefoot young girl or a toddler selling garlands of Sampaguita in the sweltering heat or cold pouring rain at night while we sit comfortably inside our air-conditioned cars that cost several hundred thousand pesos or millions? How do you ignore the destitute senior citizen begging at the window making you realize that we live in a nation that has slowly but increasingly failed to support or care for their elderly? Oftentimes when I see these scenes, I thank God that my parents and grand parents did not fall into the pit of poverty like the destitute, blind beggar at the intersection.

How can we turn away from the poor and still claim to be Christians, Catholics, Iglesias, Protestants or Muslims? How can we be Filipinos and not help the ones we can help? Somehow, the idea of not helping works against our very core and may not be the right approach.

If we are to help the mendicants “learn to fish” we must begin by recognizing them, not ignoring or avoiding them. Perhaps it would be much better to study them and organize them rather than wish them to oblivion. If local governments require hawkers and vendors permits, then why not IDs, records and permits for street children and mendicants? This would determine their true address, if they are residents of a given locality in which case they can be extended further assistance by the LGUs or NGOs. Record keeping and tracking systems will tell if they are begging on their own accord or victims of gangs and syndicates. In time the true mendicants will even point out the fakes, the scammers and con artists.

Once organized, rules can be implemented while plans are made up to evolve mendicants to vendors, from street people to residents of a care facility or center. Even in the richest nations of America, Russia, China and Japan, they too have their poor. And as the Lord told us in the Book of Mark 14:7: “The poor you will always have with you and you can help them any time you want.”

The DSWD needs to cast a vision, a plan that is in tune with our cultural reality, heritage and spirituality. Organizing and regulating mendicancy may sound strange, but in a world that regulates prostitution and medical marijuana, why should organizing mendicants in order to evolve to vendors sound so strange?

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Not very long ago, the PETA or People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, were busy stirring things up in their attempt to deport or relocate the only elephant in the Philippines to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. After huffing and puffing, PETA’s idea amounted to nothing because they did not have the right amount, much less public support to take away Manila Zoo’s lonely elephant resident.

Yesterday morning I read about DENR Secretary Ramon Paje’s intentions to convince Mayor Edwin Elorde of Bunawan, Agusan del Sur to allow the relocation of “Lolong,” the world’s largest living crocodile, to a “natural” park within Metro Manila.

In a day and age when most developed countries are promoting conservation and reintroducing captive breeds back to the wild, turning “Lolong” into a tourist attraction shows how backward our government officials are. I find it ironic that agents of the DENR conducts raids, arrests poachers and vendors of certain wildlife while their Boss, the Secretary of the DENR publicly announces his intentions to negotiate with Mayor Elorde, to turn over Lolong so they can fully utilize his potential as a tourist attraction and reptilian cash cow.

I hope the members of PETA can find the time to put a stop to this circus being worked out by the Ding-a-ling brothers. It’s bad enough that “Lolong” is being imprisoned for doing what his nature dictates, but to be put up as a tourist attraction stinks of cheap political gimmickry.