Warning vs syndicate behind child beggars

THE National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) on Friday warned the public that a criminal syndicate might be behind the scheme of using street children to beg for alms and scam people.

The NAPC issued the statement after a picture of a boy begging in Sampaloc, Manila using a QR code went viral on social media.

A netizen, who ran into the boy, said the beggar whipped out a QR code when told they had no coins.

“We laughed at first, so we checked if the QR code works, and it was real, named after a certain Beverly,” the netizen said on his Facebook post.

“There are syndicates behind these activities. The syndicates haul these beggars in vans, deploy them on the streets and collect them at night,” NAPC Vice Chairman Reynaldo Tamayo said.

Tamayo said parents of children begging on the streets could face a fine and not more than two years imprisonment if proven guilty.

The Philippine Statistics Authority said 18.1 percent of the Philippines’ nearly 110 million population live below the poverty line.

Beggars on streets become highly visible during the Christmas holidays, knocking on car windows for spare change.

Every year, the Department of Social Welfare and Development provides “basic needs” to beggars and keeps them out of the streets before returning them to the province.