Bayani Fernando for President – for the Badjaos
Excerpt from The Badjaos: Proud and Ridiculed
Bayani Fernando, chair of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), has threatened with arrest these indigenous people. According to him, they cause traffic.
Henry Borreo, a member of the National Council of the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Kamp), condemned the statements of the MMDA chair in a recent press conference.
“After Fernando’s unmerciful attacks on vendors these past months, we indigenous peoples who are among the most abused and neglected citizens of this country are now his targets,” Borreo said. “We do not say that begging should be tolerated but the issue of dire poverty, the lack of basic social services, unemployment, and the massive displacement of IPs from their ancestral lands — these are the issues that government officials like Fernando are obliged to address, not the subjugation of the poor.”
