MANILA, Philippines -- Armed with a broom stick and a stack of plastic garbage bags and jute sacks, Pepito “Pito” Madriaga sets out for another night of tidying up his neighborhood.

Every day for the past 18 years, from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m., Pito has been sweeping the 500-m long Baco Street in Barangay Sta. Teresita, La Loma, Quezon City.

His neighbors have become accustomed to and are grateful to Pito for keeping their street clean, even though it is not his job to do so.

But Pito, 43, is no ordinary street sweeper. He is a person with autism who has found solace in, of all things, cleanliness.

“He doesn’t like to see litter lying around. Any piece of garbage he sees, he sweeps or picks up and throws into his sacks,” Ofelia Valdez, Pito’s younger sister, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in Filipino.

Not in it for the money

She added that some of their neighbors have offered to pay Pito for ensuring that the street stays clean but her brother is not interested in money.

All that he is willing to accept as payment, she said, is a cup of coffee and biscuits. “He is a big coffee drinker and has his own tumbler which he hates to see empty,” Ofelia explained, laughing.

She said that once Pito starts sweeping up the street, he hates to be interrupted in his task.

“He is harmless but he keeps on sweeping even if people are standing in his way and often, he accidentally shoves them out of his path. Some take offense but most have gotten accustomed to keeping out of Kuya Pito’s way,” Ofelia explained.

Pito’s nine-hour cleaning routine, she said, produces two to three sacks of trash which he sifts through, separating the wet items from the dry. “Thankfully, the garbage truck comes to our street twice a week so the sacks do not pile up,” she added.

According to Ofelia, her brother’s preoccupation with keeping the neighborhood clean started in 1989. Back then, Pito just busied himself with tidying up the portion of the street in front of their house.

He then gradually expanded his “area of coverage” to his neighbors’ yards and before long, he was sweeping the entire length of Baco Street.

Ofelia said that her brother has also become the street’s “Mr. Lost and Found.” “It is lucky that he separates the wet garbage from the dry because neighbors who accidentally drop their money or valuables on the street usually find it inside one of the sacks,” she explained.

Ofelia recalled that there was one time Pito picked up a gold necklace on the street. “I told him to wear it until the owner came looking for it. We did not ask around who had lost the necklace because some people might simply say it is theirs and claim it,” she said.

Lucky break

Soon enough, a woman came to their house, asking Ofelia if Pito had seen a gold necklace while he was sweeping the street. After her jewelry was returned to her, the owner said it was a lucky thing that it was Pito who found it, otherwise she might had never gotten back her necklace.

There was another instance in which a neighbor dropped his pay envelope. He immediately went to Ofelia’s house to ask for help. Together, he and Ofelia went through one of Pito’s sacks of garbage and they found the pay envelope with its contents intact, much to the man’s relief.

Ofelia said her brother, the fourth child in a brood of nine, was not born autistic. A normal child until the age of 7, Pito later started showing symptoms of the condition -- his mental development slowed down, he became withdrawn and refused to leave their house.

Initially, their mother, Carolina, attributed the change in her son’s behavior to trauma as Pito had witnessed his father’s death. Then there was also a neighbor who had a nasty habit of terrorizing small children with tales of the bogeyman roaming Baco Street at night.

Doctor’s diagnosis

But a doctor who was their neighbor advised Pito’s family to take him to a psychologist. It was then that they learned that the boy had autism.

Ofelia told the Inquirer that despite his street sweeping tasks, Pito makes it a point to keep himself clean and is very possessive when it came to his personal health care products.

“The soap, shampoo, or towel he uses are his own and he throws a fit if anybody else uses them,” she said.

Whenever he is not sweeping the street, Pito can be found inside his house, sitting in a corner, tinkering with things he has collected over the years.

He is most happy, however, when he is going about his self-imposed task of cleaning up the neighborhood.

“Our neighbors have come to appreciate Pito and he is happy just having his broom, seeing to it that our street is clean and he has his coffee,” Ofelia said.