‘So I can go home please’

He was so young, unusually short and fragile to be on a busy street such as Sheridan at the intersection of Shaw Boulevard. As I observed this child with a handful of sampaguita garlands, I realized that he was also physically handicapped either by a “clubbed foot” or polio perhaps.

Out of habit, I simply grabbed the money from the side pocket of my vehicle and just gave it all to him. He smiled momentarily in appreciation but that lasted only a second. He counted several strands of sampaguita and as he insisted that I take them, he begged me: “Please buy the rest so I can go home already.”

It could have been a spiel, it could have been the truth, who knows. People say that these kids all work for a “syndicate,” others say they are placed out there by their lazy parents, just like those who bring their own child or borrow someone else’s to draw more sympathy while begging from motorists.

The sad thing is that young, handicapped child is not a rare sight in Metro Manila. They are all over the place begging from car to car, in the provinces they get on jeepneys passing envelopes and guilt people into giving a few pesos or, depending on the time of the day, they wait for you outside restaurants and fast-food chains to ask for your “doggie bag” or take out.

It is tragic when people can protest and criticize political figures for relocating or driving out street people from parks and public spaces when a visiting dignitary is scheduled to pass by Roxas Boulevard or Luneta Park. How activists and human rights groups protest when squatters are evicted or enclosed with whitewashed fences.

Politicians and pundits can crucify Vice President Sara Duterte over the confidential intelligence funds she didn’t get. Love and patriotism launched the Christmas convoy out to the West Philippine Sea, but no one has expressed indignation about mendicants and child endangerment in our city streets!

None of them have protested about BABIES and TODDLERS being used as accessories for begging in the streets. If they work for “syndicates” then why has the Philippine National Police not gone after these syndicates? If the NBI can bust syndicates involved in child pornography, why not settle once and for all if there are syndicates or is it just our society’s justification not to give money to beggars?

How is it that the MMDA can use up so much manpower, equipment keeping Bus Lanes only for buses but cannot clear Metro Manila’s streets of begging BABIES and TODDLERS. Why have we in media prioritized shaming the violators of the Bus Lane but not LGU officials who have done nothing to assist, process and protect these victims of blatant child abuse? How great our indignation is against the self-entitled while we turn a blind eye to the helpless.

Where is and what is the Department of Social Welfare and Development doing about the situation? Are they now wholly or exclusively dedicated to distributing relief goods and dole outs that make tag along politicians look good? Why do they have everything that’s needed to deal with disasters and evacuees but not the ability to manage and control mendicancy?

Sadly, these people begging in the streets are folks with no permanent address. Because they don’t have a real address and are not registered voters, the mayor’s office and the barangay don’t count them as qualified for assistance or 4Ps dole out, in spite of the fact that they need it the most.

No one is directly tasked or wants to take responsibility for child abuse in the streets, government officials have resigned themselves to “having the poor always” as Jesus Christ told his apostles. All law enforcement units won’t get their hands dirty, local politicians want to be politically correct and avoid controversies that come from clearing streets of mendicants and people in media see the politics but not the CHILDREN!

Lest we forget, Jesus Christ himself warned us: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). Whether through commission or omission, if our children suffer or sin in our streets, WE are all guilty.

I already said it in the second part of my “Camella Farms” column last week that contrary to our claim of being a friendly and loving people, we have failed our children not just in their PISA scores, not just in their nutrition needs, but in a menu of nightmares because we have minimized them. As for the “begging accessories” in the streets, we have hardened our hearts as well.

Next time we look at a nativity scene or the face of the infant Jesus, let’s ask ourselves, who would we be if his birth took place today, would you be one of the three kings who brought gifts and honored the Infant-Savior? Would you be one of the shepherds who were honored and saw hope and reason to rejoice with the birth of the child, or would you be one of the many who closed their doors to the child about to be born?

God forbid that we become Herod’s henchmen who actively participated in the slaughter of the innocents in obedience to the command of authority. Or are you a Herod who is more focused on keeping your position of power by saying “it’s not my job” – “it’s not our responsibility.”

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