Street People

In Metro Manila you see quite a few people living on and of the street, many of them just children. There is an estimated 1.5 million "street children" in the Philippines and 75,000 or so in Metro Manila alone. You also see adults living from the street selling a thing or two (cigarettes, candies, bottled water or newspapers), usually in the middle of the street, to jeepney drivers and motorists alike. They are mostly vendors. They bring their children/babies with them on their daily tasks.

Others, you see them begging, many of them are also children or just toddlers. They beg for a peso here and there, knocking on the windows of the cars. Usually, their parents are somewhere else and just collect at the end of the day the earned money that their children made begging, or does that really happen that they share their loot to them, if any of them have parents around?

This is a on-going problem in Metro Manila. These street dwellers could go to drop-in centers or the Department of Social Welfare at the place where they are, but many choose to live a lifestyle on the street. Many times, the problem lies in the people's attitudes towards life. Some of them are proud enough to look for other sources of income, while others take the easy way out and go begging.

One other reason why beggars (mendicants) are reluctant to leave their turf is the alms and free food they get from people. These simple acts of gesture encourage them to continue this way of life. Who needs work if you can earn a hundred pesos a day just from begging?

Many boys in the streets are without parents and many times these boys become addicted to drugs like sniffing glue or become a gang member later in life. Street girls usually get into early prostitution with tourists and locals to earn extra money.

Many of these children you see on the streets were sexually abused, physically maltreated, abandoned, neglected, victims of broken homes, and from families devastated by poverty.

At present, there are about 300 agencies of all kinds working with street children in the Philippines.

It's quite a problem, as this is part of society we live in in Metro Manila. Haven't seen any street children anywhere in the provinces, but I'm sure, you'll find them somewhere.