BY GLENDA TAYONA AND GABRIEL DOMINIQUE BAÑAGA
ILOILO City – Mendicant Badjaos have returned to this city, some nine months after they were rounded up and sent home to avert the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
They have resumed begging on the city’s streets and do not wear facemasks, according to Jeck Conlu, head of the city government’s Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO).
He expressed concern that around 30 Badjaos may have already contracted SARS-coV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
PSTMO personnel recently rounded them up.
Conlu believed these Badjaos came from nearby provinces in Panay Island. The city government had not monitored Badjaos entering seaports, he explained.
They were probably among those who were not included in the group that was sent home at the height of the enhanced community quarantine, said Conlu.
The PSTMO is currently conducting an inventory of Badjaos in the city. Conlu said he could not give an exact number yet but the city government is ready to send them home.
Conlu will meet with concern government agencies regarding the Badjaos and other indigenous people like the Atis who roam around the city and also asking for alms without facemasks.
Begging and giving alms to beggars are punishable under City Regulation Ordinance 2002-400.
Mendicants are liable to fines of P500, imprisonment of not more than a year, or both fine and imprisonment.
On the other hand, giving to beggars is punishable by a fine of P500 or community service.
In Negros Occidental, officials of the provincial government deported to Jolo, Sulu a total of 136 Badjaos from the cities of Sagay and Victorias.
But that was just a temporary solution, said Dr. Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, commander of the Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT).
According to Caelian, they cannot give any assurance that Badjaos repatriated recently won’t return to the province.
“It’s the Badjaos’ right to travel wherever they want, especially that these indigenous people are considered as “nomads of the sea,” said Caelian.
So far, there are no more Badjaos in Negros Occidental, according to the social workers of the provincial government.
Caelian said what is left are those married to Negrenses.
A total of 107 Basdjaos were sent to Zamboanga, 24 to Basilan and seven to Sulu.
Before leaving the province, the Badjaos underwent swab testing to ensure they were not COVID-19 carriers.
The repatriation was coordinated by the city governments of Victorias, Sagay, PIMT, Office of Civil Defense in Western Visayas and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Negros Occidental.
DSWD provided the Badjaos with travel, meals and pocket money of P3,500 each on their way home./PN
