CABANATUAN CITY – Mocked as informal settlers, or the derisive label “squatters,” several Badjao families built makeshift houses in an area along a creek here.
Their houses became aberrations in an improving landscape of high-end subdivisions, business establishments and private homes in the eastern section of this city. Many of their members were seen later pestering people, some with cuddled babies, asking for alms.
Not a few eyebrows were raised among residents because of what seemed as “unwanted” development in this vast business center in Nueva Ecija.
Instead of driving them away, as many sectors demanded, the city government here built a permanent community for them here. They are also being trained for livelihood enterprises. A total of 120 families comprising 450 individuals have now found home in a 2.5-hectare area in Barangay Bakod-bayan here. The land was donated by Ria Vergara, wife of Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara.
A “Sama Bajau Activity Center and Core Shelter” was also put up and inaugurated recently with assistance from “Salinlahi,” a national program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The program caters to street children and street-dwelling families.
Officially known as Sama Bajau people, the Badjaos who are scattered throughout the Sulu Archipelago in the country, are sea nomads. It was not known who convinced them to come here and leave their seafaring way of life.
“The Salinlahi program aims to preserve the Sama-Bajau culture while elevating their standard of living,” said Helen Bagasao, head of the City Social Welfare and Development Office. She added that as per directive by Mayor Vergara, the individual Badjaos here were assisted to have their own birth certificate and identification card.
The Badjaos, it was learned, are not keen on adhering to civil registration and many of them don’t even know their exact date of birth. “Each head of the Badjao families here was also given P10,000 by the DSWD for their livelihood assistance,” Bagasao said. “The money has been deposited in the bank in their personal accounts,” she added.
Among others, the activity center in the Badjao community will provide livelihood trainings for them as well as for other interested parties. Currently, they are being given skills training in jewelry handcrafting and in running small-scale general merchandise store.
With assistance from the personnel of the CSWDO, selected Badjao individuals visited recently weaving communities in Pangasinan to acquire knowledge in weaving.
