HOMELESS SETTLERS IN THE CITY by: Owen S. Bayog

The Philippines has a total population of 88.57 million, dispersed across thousands of islands, of which forty percent live in slums. It should come as no surprise that these areas are characterised by limited access to basic services, no legal land tenure and insecure shelter generally on the least appealing plots of land. A high percentage of Filipino slum dwellers live in areas where they are vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters such as along shorelines, around dumpsites, under bridges and on hillsides. 

In an afternoon after my regular coffee time at the downtown area I saw that the sun is setting down at 5pm, clouds dramatically formed which tempted me to go to the port area (Bredco Port).  From where I stand, the sky turns into red and yellow.  A slight shade of blue had even tempted me more to take my camera out of the bag.

When I finally got ready,  a bunch of kids called “badyaws”  came up to me and ask for spare change – others can hardly speak the Illonggo dialect yet could manage to pronounce words like “Gai kwarta”, “Bakal Tinapay” and of course the generic line – “Piso lang”.  It took some time to let them understand that I am not giving money, the kids persisted.

While engaging in a conversation with them – I took snaps and everyone was excited to take a look on how they appear in the photo after the shot.  I still managed to shoot photos of them while conversing and a young boy told me that they are from Cebu and others from Mindanao. 

Then an elder came to me and asked for money – she told me that they used to live in Mindanao but decided to go to other places when they were displaced from the land they used to till.

In 1995 “Badyaws” can already be seen on the City streets of Cebu, Bacolod and even in Manila.  There was a time that their population increased and City Officials here decided to drive them away.  I also learned that there is a community for them in Cebu – but still they decided to roam instead of settling in one place.

Moments before my 12th shot – the clouds got dark and I remembered that I was there to take a photo of the sunset.  I placed my camera back into the bag smiling – I told myself “forget about the sunset”, I already have what I need.  A photo of the sunset while conversing and taking photos of the homeless settlers in City – the “badyaws”.#osb