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Sunday, October 23, 2005
Gov't to provide Aetas alternative livelihood
By Albert B. Lacanlale
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- As part of the government's thrust to discourage mendicants off the streets, concerned government agencies and local government units in Central Luzon are set to provide alternative livelihood for indigenous peoples in the region.
This developed during the recent inter-agency meeting of the Anti-Mendicancy Task Force on Sagip-Kalinga Katutubo held at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) here.
Adelina Apostol, DSWD assistant regional director for Region 3, said the provision of alternative livelihood opportunities is one of the strategies identified by the regional task force in preventing mendicancy among the indigenous peoples, specifically by Aetas.
Apostol said some Aeta families who were economically displaced with the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 have resorted to mendicancy for their source of income.
"This early, we have already received reports that some Mangyans, Igorots and Aetas were seen in Metro Manila begging for alms," Apostol said, as she added that these indigenous peoples are a common sight in major thoroughfares in the metropolis during the Christmas season.
She added that the regional task force was recently reactivated to formulate effective mechanisms in the prevention of mendicancy.
City and municipal social welfare development officers of concerned local government units in Pampanga, Zambales, and Palayan City have committed their full support to the program by way of providing the indigenous peoples with food for work program support, funding assistance for livelihood projects and marketing assistance for their agricultural produce.
According to Lani Dionisio, regional director of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the reactivation of the anti-mendicancy inter-agency task force at the municipal level is a must in ensuring the success of the campaign.
Included in the campaign's target Aeta areas are the municipalities of Porac, Floridablanca, Mabalacat and this city, all in Pampanga; Palayan City in Nueva Ecija; Subic and San Marcelino in Zambales; Bamban, Capas and San Clemente in Tarlac; and Marilao in Bulacan.
Dionisio said mendicancy, which is prohibited under Presidential Decree 1563, not only poses health hazards but more so, endangers one's life and affects the self-respect and diginity of the individual concerned.
Apostol said the regional task force has been quite successful in its campaign for the past years as she noted a decrease in the number of reported mendicant-Aeta families in Metro Manila.
"From 369 mendicant-Aeta families in 2001, 84 in 2002, 68 in 2003, the figures went down to zero in 2004," Apostol said.
(October 23, 2005 issue)
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