THE Badjaos did not just stay in Bacolod. The capital city simply became their official residence. They have also branched out in their begging business in other cities and towns. Each chapter has a coordinator or leader who handles accounting, auditing and disbursement the Badjao way.
You may find this funny but they have their style in networking and linkage. They are holding also a DILG solicitation paper from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. People cannot bully them because they have the certification that their kind of begging is legitimate.
When I was still the tourism officer of Silay, I befriended one Badjao lady who could speak Tagalog. Her name was Rizalda. Her family came from Tungkalang in Sanga-sanga Island. She wanted me to inform the tricycle drivers in their terminals that the Badjao serenaders, a group of teenagers, be allowed to play music while they are waiting for the passengers as a kind of fund-raising activity.
The project materialized until the end of December. Rizalda informed me that in Silay there are more or less 30 Badjaos . She said that every year Badjao population is increasing because their adult women are always pregnant. She added that more Badjaos are coming to Negros via Dumaguete because in Negros there are plenty of festivals. I told our Department of Social Service and Development about the Badjao situation but there was no response.
The Badjao coordinator in every chapter has the tourism brochures and a master list containing the list of festivals and other exciting events of towns and cities including religious fiestas, Christmas celebration, and market days. They become tourism-oriented beggars and enjoy the surprises that the island can offer.
One mayor in a north Negros town told me that he gathered all the Badjaos in his town and offered them three-hectare government land where they could live and farm. The Badjaos refused because they do not know agriculture. They can be fishermen only using the traditional way of fishing.
The adult Badjaos are experts in catching fish. My mayor friend cannot offer his shoreline because the water is shallow. He has no area for deep sea fishing. He offered money to Badjaos who want to go home. The elders answered that their children who grow up in Negros do not want to leave because they do not know traditional fishing.
If the Badjaos go back to their homeland the landscape in their place is already different. In Sanga-sanga and Bongao, passengers used to be ferried across the short span and the Badjaos were the boatmen. Now, there is already a bridge that connects two islands.
The corals that used to be the fish sanctuary were destroyed when the Department of Public Works and Highways constructed roads and bridges. The modernization that took place resulted to the displacement of the Badjao villages. There was a massive disruption and eventual destruction of the ecological system.
With all the developments, the old mooring place disappeared. Like pitiful birds, when the Badjaos go back, they have no more homes. The rape of the corals is still going on up to now. The currents of the sea change as the coral beds are being destroyed. The political and the ecological damage could no longer be given solution.
I do not know if what possible help could be offered by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) if the Badjaos will be obliged to return home. Is BARMN ready to spend billions of pesos to rehabilitate physically, morally and economically the returning Badjaos? If only the Bacolod Bajaos will return, what will happen to other Badjaos in towns and cities?
This needs a careful study from the sociologists and environmentalists. The Badjaos, who are now the locally stranded individuals (LSIs), cannot just go home now and three months later return to Bacolod with more relatives and friends because they could not live in their place of origin. Bacolod is more livable than Tawi-tawi. What do you say Mayor Bing?