A BADJAO elder in Cebu has called for an end to a social media trend that mimics the practices and traditional clothing of the indigenous group, saying such viral videos are trivializing sacred traditions and creating harmful stereotypes.
Sanida Daomani, an elder from the Badjao community in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City, said in an interview with SunStar Cebu on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, that her community’s culture is deeply solemn and should not be trivialized for entertainment.
Many videos on TikTok show people wearing the group’s traditional clothes, carrying a child and holding out improvised containers for begging. One video under the trend received more than one million likes and 717,000 shares.
“It’s discrimination… Don’t make fun of us because that’s our [culture],” said Daomani in Cebuano.
“Others shouldn’t take advantage. It’s okay if we joke around with fellow Badjao, but if it involves other people, it feels like we’re being bullied,” she added.
Daomani said these portrayals reflect deeper issues, as they perpetuate harmful stereotypes about the Badjao people.
The elder described the videos as discouraging, expressing pain over how the Badjao identity is often reduced to begging, despite the fact that many members of their community are professionals.
While acknowledging ongoing efforts to reduce street begging, she explained that for some members of the community, it remains a means of livelihood and survival.
She added that there is a disconnect within the community, pointing out that some Badjao remain close-minded and reluctant to approach leaders for support.
The Badjao, also called Sama-Bajau or “sea gypsies,” is an indigenous group mainly residing in the coastal regions and islands of the southern Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Due to conflicts in Mindanao, many Badjao have been displaced from their traditional seafaring way of life, resulting in dispersed communities across urban and coastal locations such as the Visayas and Luzon.
In a previous report of SunStar Cebu, members of the Badjao community in Cebu are forced to look for another livelihood like selling pearl trinkets instead of fishing as the fish population dwindles over the years due to pollution.
Based on 2016 data from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity, about 2,000 Badjao live in Mambaling, with 90 percent of them living below the poverty line. / DPC