Badjaw begging

I was eating in a resto and all of a sudden, an adolescent girl carrying an infant was in front of me, begging for a dime. Begging has become synonymous with the Bajaw, an unfortunate one. Are they entirely to blame?

Why did they came to the city, in the first place? They have no employable vocational skills, this they know. But city provides them relative safety and daily income.

The state through several laws has usurped their traditional maritime homeland and give it up to giant fishing companies. Even the IPRA mention only land-dwelling groups. How about the Badjaw whose homeland is the Sulu and Celebes seas?

The lowlanders expanded into their villages, and pacifists they are, they just decided to move farther until there was no more place beyond. The lowlanders got an upper hand in their traditional livelihood like fishing and seaweeds farming. 

Sea gangs harass them and go after their meagre income. Everyone ridicules, shuns or drives them away because people do not like their peculiar smell.

Where do you think will they go? How will they live? Here we are just talking about subsistence, not yet their political rights!