Bayani goes after vagrants, beggars

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando led the rounding up of vagrants, street children, and street dwellers on EDSA yesterday morning to discourage people from flocking to Metro Manila to beg this Christmas season.

Thirteen people, including a five-month-old boy, were rounded up and brought to the Jose Fabella Center, run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in Mandaluyong City.

"Sa mga gusting pumunta sa Metro Manila ngayong Pasko, huwag na at manatili na lang kayo sa inyong probinsya," Fernando said.

The MMDA recently assisted the DSWD in rounding up vagrants and beggars at the start of the Christmas season, when there are usually more of them roaming the streets and asking for alms.

Fernando said the MMDA’s efforts would continue even after Christmas.

He echoed the DSWD’s call for people to refrain from giving alms to street children.

The MMDA’s team of 10 people in its Street Dweller Care Unit rounded up 13 vagrants and street dwellers yesterday and 50 Aetas in Cubao Monday night.

One of the vagrants was found by the MMDA hiding on top of a MRT beam in Cubao.

Most of those brought to Fabella were defiant and angry at the MMDA and Fernando "for keeping them away from their jobs."

Danilo Labra, of Antipolo City, claimed he worked as a porter in a bus terminal in Cubao and should not have been rounded up with his five-month-old son.

His wife works as a cigarette vendor, he said. They would usually leave their son with a friend who stays with the child on top of the flyover while they work.

Labra said his baby was used to the heat and the pollution on EDSA.

Evelyn Lontok, DSWD social worker and head of the Fabella Center, said such reactions were expected.

"But often, after two days at the center, they would not want to leave anymore," Lontok said.

Those rounded up by the department and the MMDA are bathed, clothed, and fed before they are reunited with their families in the province or brought back to their homes in Metro Manila.

‘Bawal Ang Sabit’

The MMDA reiterated a warning yesterday to stubborn commuters who insist on hanging at the back of public utility jeepneys and drivers who tolerate this unsafe practice.

Fernando noted that such practice encourages snatching incidents inside PUVs like jeepneys.

"Sanhri rin yan (sabit) ng snatching dahil natatakpan ng mga nakasabit ang loob ng jeepney," Fernando told reporters.

Fernando said MMDA traffic enforcers and policemen will be more vigilant and will apprehend PUVs with sabit, especially since petty crimes like snatching are rampant during the Christmas season.

Earlier, the MMDA prohibited public utility buses (PUBs) from using heavy curtains and tints on their windows as a preventive measure against bus robberies.

Fernando said "sabit" has always been prohibited. PUVs with "sabit" are considered overloaded.

But authorities have tolerated this practice especially during rush hour, with the apparent shortage of PUVs, the MMDA chair said.

PUV drivers with overloaded vehicles will be penalized accordingly, Fernando said. There are no sanctions to the hardheaded passengers.

As for public utility buses (PUBs), Fernando said passengers are allowed to stand if all seats are already occupied.

However, bus doors should be closed when the vehicles are moving, he stressed.

"Buses are obligated to have doors," Fernando said.

PUBs without doors are not allowed to ply the streets. Repeated violation could result to the suspension of the driver’s license and the cancellation of the bus operator’s franchise. – Nikko Dizon