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If you give street carolers cash, you’re actually making them dependent on dole-outs.
“The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman urged the public to refrain from giving any amount of money to children caroling on the streets this Christmas season,” reports ABS-CBNnews.com.
“Caroling on the streets is risky, especially to children who squeeze themselves between vehicles and tap on car windows, or those who jump from one public utility vehicle to another. They are unmindful of the dangers to their life and limb,” Soliman said.
The report indicated that “the DSWD and the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), an attached agency of the Department and the highest policy making body on children, continue to advocate the Anti-Mendicancy Law of 1978 saying that the holiday season should not be a reason to stop enforcing the law.”
However, the report noted that Presidential Decree 1563 or the “Anti-Medicancy Law of 1978” needs to be updated.
To date, as the report revealed, “the penalties for mendicants and those giving alms directly to the mendicants are only PHP500 and PHP20, respectively.”
Photo: MorgueFile
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