Badjao is a tribe that originate from Sulu, southern province of the Philippine archipelago. They live mostly in houseboats, which occasionally cluster in moorings near certain strands and beaches and their way of living, barter their sea products for farm produce as fruits, vegetables among other root crops.
This was how the past describes them, not anymore today, as this tribe migrated to different parts of the country reaching as far as Cebu City to escape from the harsh condition of their home province and this is how the new generation see them now (inset images) beggars on boats.
Being a tribe with different culture, tradition, dialect and way of life, its difficult for them to thrive in a big city like Cebu and their only way to survive is begging, the oldest job in the world, only that it evolve into a different form, adapted to a culture of boat people and living on the sea.
As you can see in this photos, they welcome arriving passenger ships from different surrounding islands and province using boats to beg for coins, food among others. They usually come in bunch bringing with them their family and asking passengers to throw coins on the water for them to swim and look for it, but what disturbs me was that they carry with them children as young as 4-6 months old so they can lure people to throw coins on them for sympathy, exposing them to harsh and cold environment being wet at all times. A harsh and inhuman treatment they can afford to inflict to their children just to earn money. A sickening truth.
How come this activities were not check by the authorities? They must be blind not to see this scenarios and to think that this practice exists for quite sometime now. Obviously, people of Cebu doesn't care also because they let this happen, a Catholic rich city with deep religious history, don't they think God wanted them to do something about this situation?
Jan 2, 2009
Excerpts; The Badjaos and Cebu
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