1. I just picked-up my daughter when she was then in High School in Alabang ( south of Manila) and while waiting for the traffic light to change, I heard a tap-tapping on my car window.
I saw a small girl not more than 7 years old with her palm opened to me. I asked her why is she begging? She replied if she did not meet her day's quota, she will be chased out of the house of the man who maintains them (meaning more little boys and girls).
2. As my car approached the corner of Katipunan Ave and Santolan Road (East of Manila), I saw from afar a teenaged girl who noticed my car slowing down for the intersection. She then lifted a tiny girl (more like a baby) sitting too on the sidewalk and then, shockingly, dropped the baby on the pavement to make her cry. She then picked-up again the baby girl and approached my window to beg, telling me "it is for the baby girl who was crying in hunger". I WAS SHOCKED!!!!
3. Lenlen is a skinny girl (age 7 according to her but she looked too small for 7) and she would offer me sampaguita flowers as I gas-up at the Petron Gas Station in Don Antonio, Quezon City (north of Manila) at about 11:30pm.
She relates that she is part of a family of 8 kids ages 2 to 12. There father abandoned them and her mother is too sick to work. So, it is up to the kids to feed the family.
4. It was late at night and it was also raining very hard as I waited for the green light at the corner of Gil Puyat and Makati Avenues in Makati. Again I heard that familiar tap-tapping on my car window. I rolled it down a little as it was still raining so hard.
I nearly could not see her as the girl was so short. Her lips were white from the cold cold rain as she tried raising her trembling hand offering me flowers. She could hardly speak (more like mumble) from all that shaking from the cold.
5. In any traffic intersection, you will see so many beggars supposedly scurrying around stopped or slowly moving vehicles.
I was told by one beggar that the scurrying is organized and there is a hierarchy of begging. Example, by agreement, the beggars keep to their lane. There is sometimes a Big Boss which is usually the oldest among the beggars and he lords it over everyone.
The Management of Begging?
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