Street mendicancy is the first stage of becoming children in conflict with the law (CICL), according to a social worker.
Fritz Adam Rondero, Department of Social Welfare and Development XI (DSWD-XI) officer, said that the increasing number of mendicants in the streets of Davao City is very alarming despite the existence of a 41-year old law prohibiting mendicancy or begging in the streets. Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1563, otherwise known as the Anti Mendicancy Law was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1978.
On a typical rush evening hour at the busy intersection along J.P. Laurel on Wednesday, three minors stopped a jeepney to beg for money. After being turned down, they hurled stones on the public transport while stopped at the traffic light.
An Edge Davao reporter personally witnessed the violent acts which caught the jeepney driver and his passengers by surprise and caused a minor commotion and traffic congestion. No police officer was around and the minors ran away from the scene.
Scenes like this are no longer uncommon and even Davao City Police Office (DCPO) director Police Senior Superintendent Alexander Tagum admitted this particular road section is the favorite of mendicants in the city who often cause trouble in the streets.
Rondero said that the law that penalizes people from giving amount to street beggars is not really fully implemented resulting to various abuses including children being exploited by syndicates.
“Since they are exposed in the streets, they get to absorb all the negativities they get from people, including their barkadas. That makes them prone from doing unlawful acts,” he said on Tuesday during the Kolokabildo forum at the Holy Cross of Davao College.
With the recent push for the lowering of the criminal age of liability, Rondero said that interventions must be made to alleviate their situation. Poverty, she said, pushed children to beg in the streets.
Acting on Wednesday’s incident, Tagum said that he had already instructed Sta. Ana Police Station Chief Michael Uyanguren to monitor the area, known as a hotspot for street beggars, including street children.
Tagum said that they are strictly implementing curfew so that children in the streets will be spared from committing unlawful acts.
He said that the DCPO is teaming up with the City Social Services and Development Office in rescuing minor street mendicants.
The police office reminded the public to report cases of minors involved in criminal activities.
Florie May Tacang, executive director of Kaugmaon for Children’s Rights and Social Development, said that sustainable help must be given to these children since they are also victims themselves.
“The (mendicancy) law is still relevant. Instead of focusing on the penalties, we should focus more on the long-lasting solution in addressing to their needs, so that they will not result of returning to begging,” Tacang said.
