A child's life at the boulevard

At 10 in the evening, most children are already in bed, tucked under a warm blanket, hugging a favorite pillow and dreaming of a faraway fairytale land. Most children do, but not Elena.
Elena [not her true name], is a 10 year old peanut vendor at the Rizal Boulevard. According to her, she sells at least 12 packs of peanut a night at five pesos per pack. Together with her parents and younger brother, Elena peddles her goods even so late at night to help her parents make ends meet.
Hailing from the southern most tip of the province, Elena grew up in BayawanCity but her parents relocated in Dumaguete to find a better life for their family. She shared that her family is renting a house at Barangay Canday-ong. Despite the need to stay up late in the night, Elena related that she can still wake up early in the morning to go to Calindagan Elementary Schoolwhere she studies as a grade two pupil.
With dangers posing in every corner, Elena confided that she is scared staying up late and be exposed to the dangers of the street, but also bravely said that because her parents are with her, she feels alright.
Elena is just one among the more than a dozen child peddlers at the Rizal Boulevard and one among the thousands of child laborers in the country.
To many, the Rizal Boulevardis a place to stroll, relax and enjoy. Locals and tourists alike flocks the boulevard 24 hours a day, but none pays too much attention to the many child peddlers and beggars walking side by side with them. Some of these children are carrying loads that are either big enough for them or heavier than them. Some of them sweaty and smelly from begging the whole day, sings their heart out to anybody who wants to listen to them and give them money afterwards.
Child beggars or those locally known as “badjao” starts begging early in the morning until late at night, sometimes even at the wee hours of the morning. Elena narrated that some of the children are being paid by the bars and restaurants along the boulevard to guard and clean the vehicles of their costumers.
For children like Elena, the Boulevard is not just a place of relaxation. Mingling with foreigners, relaxing locals, prostitutes, drug addicts and gang members, the children of the Rizal Boulevard roams freely from early in the afternoon until the siren starts wailing in the evening. The sound of the siren, a way of the city government of Dumaguete to impose the curfew policy, would warn the children that the time to go home or hide is near. The curfew policy affects all minors in the city; however, choosing the latter option is easier for children who are not allowed to go home unless they sell all their goods.
Seeing an officer from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), a child peddle who is carrying a basket much heavier than him, had mistakenly assumed the officer for a policeman, hurriedly and fearfully walks away together with several minors hanging around the boulevard. As we tried to get to him and talk to him, the child fearfully and sadly said that he cannot talk to us because the “police” want him to go home. He then went to the nearby “balut” stall and sat together with the older peddlers and pretends that he is part of them.
“It’s like they have seen a monster…” the DSWD officer said.
For these children, getting caught by the policemen would mean a night in jail. However, observing the whole process, everything is a cat and mouse play for the children. Some of them would hide at the sight of the policemen or officers of the DSWD but would return to peddle or roam around the city when the officers are already out of sight.
According to the DSWD officer, who wants to remain anonymous, the department is helping the city impose the curfew policy for minors and they go to places like the boulevard every night and send the street children home.
Some children aging six and above confides that they cannot go home unless all their goods are sold otherwise they would be reprimanded. Some of the children would sing to the people at the boulevard in exchange for a penny or two. When asked about their parents, the children would shyly explain that their parents are at home, some knows they are begging at the boulevard while other oblivious of their children’s activity.
For the children of the Rizal Boulevard, the more people in the boulevard the more advantageous for their income. Not considering the dangers that these children are exposed to, some parents would force their children to beg and hurt them if they can not give money to them afterwards.
Sweaty, smelly, tired and boisterous the children, exposed to the evils of drugs, prostitution, and exploitation, continues to roam, sing, and with their easy smile innocently peddle their future। For Elena and the rest of the children, this is what life is at the Rizal Boulevard