The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Tuesday they have rescued around 200 indigenous people found begging during the holiday season.

In a “Laging Handa” briefing, DSWD Undersecretary Edu Punay said: “Since we started the rescue and reach-out operations, we have rescued more or less 200 individual IPs.”

“For now, we were able to send more than 60 individuals that are Badjaos back to their province. Currently, we have 20 families temporarily staying here in Jose Fabella Center and we are also arranging for their trip back to their province,” he added.

Punay said the DSWD is coordinating with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and local government units in their rescue operations to search for these indigenous people.

“We started our rescue and reach-out operations in NCR and we were able to rescue IP community members in Makati, Muntinlupa, Manila, and Pasay,” Punay said.

Punay said they will be giving P10,000 worth of livelihood assistance to the IPs so they would not be forced to return to Manila to beg in the streets.

The DSWD will also be launching a special project that will provide IPs with birth certificates, IDs, and other identification documents which will allow them to access government programs.

On November 18, DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo ordered the start of the rescue operations of indigenous people who are begging in the streets. Jaspearl Tan/DMS