Stop giving help to roadside beggars

Borbon Mayor Butch Sepulveda is asking motorists to refrain from giving anything especially to children lining up the national highway because this will only encourage mendicancy.
“They are not really beggars. They are just people taking advantage of the situation to get food and money. I am asking passersby not to give anymore so they will leave,” he said.
Sepulveda said reports reached him that a child was sideswiped by a passing vehicle a week ago. But they were not able to identify the victim.
Policemen are being sent to the area to drive them away but children run to their parents or hide upon sighting the  law enforcers.
“Motago lang kadiyot pero mobalik sad dayon ug wala na ang pulis. Ang solusyon ana nga dili na lang gyud sila pahatagan (They just hide for a while and go back on the streets when the police leaves. The best thing to do is not to give them anything so they will stop from begging),” the mayor said.
Sepulveda said some of his constituents started begging for food a day after supertyphoon Yolanda made landfall last Nov. 8, when they started to run out of food.
The number of beggars started to increase when they saw people who were bringing relief goods to northern Cebu would  stop along the highway and give away relief goods.
Borbon, a fourth class municipality located 82 kilometers north of Cebu City, is among the towns badly hit by typhoon Yolanda. Other typhoon-affected areas include Bogo City and the municipalities of Tabogon, Medellin, San Remegio, Daanbantayan and Sta. Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos in Bantayan Island.
Sepulveda said that about 1,000 families in Borbon town either had partially or totally damaged houses.
But he said that his people were not left hungry.
The municipal government already gave away three batches of relief packs. A relief pack contains three kilos of rice, canned goods and noodles.
More relief goods were also given by the Cebu provincial government, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as well as private donors.
The Borbon municipal government, he said, is now in the process of acquiring construction materials for distribution to the affected families using at least P1 million from their calamity funds “pero naa lang gyu’y ubang tawo nga dili makuntento. Gusto lang magsige ug pangayo (There are those who are not contented. They want to ask for more),” he said.
Child’s story
Jomar, 8, extends one hand to beg for food or money from passersby  in Borbon.
“Mangayo mi’g pagkaon kay para naa mi makaon. Naa sad uban mohatag ug sinsilyo. Akong tigumon kay akong ihatag sa akong mama (I ask for food so that we will have something to eat. Some motorists give me coins. I keep it and give it to my mother),” said Jomar.
Jomar said he wanted to help his widowed mother earn money so they could replace their nipa roof which was blown away by the typhoon. They are now using used tarpaulin sheets  as their roof.
Over the weekend, children including Jomar and some women, crowd portions of about a 30-kilometer stretch of the north road, located along the vicinity of the municipality of Sogod, Borbon, Tabogon and at the boundary of Bogo City.
They would stretch out a hand to beg from passing motorists.
One boy brought with him a piece of cardboard with the message “hatagi ko ug pagkaon (give me food).”
Bogo City administrator Carlo Fernando Logarta said that beggars seen near the boundary of their city are from neighboring towns.
“People in our city do not have to beg because the city government made sure that they are well feed,” he said.
Bogo City also implemented a six-day food-for-work program from November 11 to 16 which employed 2, 200 people for a fee of P150 per day to help them earn money which they could use to buy nails and other construction materials needed to fix their damaged houses.
Logarta said they appropriated P2.5 million for their cash-for-work program.
Sepulveda said that because of their limited resources, Borbon town is confined to distributing relief goods to their residents. But he is willing to also implement the cash-for-work program if extended financial assistance by the national government.