More Badjao gypsies have been “rescued” from the streets of Bacolod City and will be sent back to Mindanao.
The 72 Badjaos sent from Iloilo to Bacolod on Saturday arrived in Pili, Zamboanga del Sur, Monday afternoon, Sally Abelarde, Bacolod Department of Social Services and Development head, said.
She said Department of Social Welfare and Development personnel in Pili were assisting the Badjaos who are headed for Jolo, Sulu.
Abelarde said 38 more Badjaos have been rescued from Bacolod City’s streets and are now staying at the youth home in Barangay Vista Alegre for processing before being sent back to their hometowns.
A controversy over the Badjaos erupted on Friday when Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas declared Bacolod Acting Mayor El Cid Familiaran persona non grata for the arrival of 80 Badjaos from Bacolod in Iloilo.
Familiaran said that Bacolod City was sending the 80 Badjaos to Mindanao, but they instead disembarked at the Dumangas port on June 21 and went to Iloilo.
Treñas in turn said he was sending the Badjaos back to Bacolod on Saturday but only 72 arrived in the city.
Of the 72 only 15 were from the batch of 80 from Bacolod, and the rest appeared to have been residing in Iloilo as some had identification cards and business clearances from there, Abelarde said. In fact some had voted in Iloilo, she said.
The Iloilo City government will continue to rescue the rest of the Badjaos from Bacolod so they can be sent back to their places of origin, Iloilo Mayor Jerry Treñas said.
“We will not allow them to come here because they do not have work,” Treñas said on Monday.
Treñas told reporters that the Badjaos have become street mendicants in Iloilo City but are known to sometimes resort to violence when no one gives them alms.
Abelarde said the Badjaos who beg on the streets have been coming to Bacolod for the last 20 years.
They said they like to come to Bacolod because people are generous, she said.
Abelarde appealed to the public not to give alms to the Badjaos so they do not keep coming back to Bacolod.*