BAGUIO CITY, Philippines - As the city ushers in the Christmas season and the rush of tourists in the months leading to the holidays, law enforcement units launched its drive against vagrants and mendicants. In a recent meeting between local government and Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) officials, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan made it clear that tourist spots and the central business district must be free of vagrants and mendicants. Domogan said he does not want to receive reports of street dwellers sleeping underneath overpasses or sprawled on picnic spots and benches at Burnham Park.
The mayor said that if the local government cannot control vagrants and mendicants, then the city's Alay sa Kalinisan program, with which this mountain resort city prides itself for being at the forefront of the country's clean and green program, will be useless. He told BCPO officials that he was displeased that the number of vagrants and mendicants have significantly increased, to the point that visitors have reported encountering them sleeping on the steps of the overpass. To make things worse, Domogan said, when vagrants and mendicants leave the public spots where they slept, they leave a considerable amount of trash and even human wastes behind. Anticipating a further increase in the number of vagrants and mendicants this Yuletide season, Domogan directed the police and the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) offices to intensify their operations against street dwellers. ''They (vagrants and mendicants) will be sent back to their places of origin the soonest before they loiter around the city and contribute to the city's increasing volume of waste,'' he said. Among the identified vagrants and mendicants are Badjaos from Mindanao and elders from various parts of the Cordillera region. The local chief executive cited vagrants and mendicants also use their lodging areas as the places where they dispose human waste which is considered to be ugly, especially during peak hours that destroys the ambience of the city's central business district area, particularly during the cool mornings.
He appealed to the families of the vagrants and mendicants to prevent their relatives from coming to the city and beg so that they will not contribute in destroying the image of the city as a prime tourist destination since many tourists are dismayed over the bad attitude of most medicants who insist that they be given money even if people do not want to give them. Police and social welfare officials admitted they are successful in apprehending and sending mendicants back to their places of origin but it is unfortunate that they are again able to come back to the city and pursue their trade several days later. Beggars love to do their trade in the city because local residents and even tourists are reportedly generous, thus, some of them were able to build their houses after several years of roaming around the city and begging from thousands of people.
