PHOTO OF THE WEEK:

BADJAOS: FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS 
TO THE MOUNTAINS OF BAGUIO

The cold pavement of downtown Baguio serves as a refuge for a Badjao mother,  here seen in anguish and  begging for alms, as her daughter is asleep. Until this photo was taken last week, the Badjaos, a non-Muslim ethnic minority who live by the sea in Mindanao, took sanctuary and odd jobs mainly in Pasay City, Metro Manila where police and social welfare authorities hound them no end and send them  back to Mindanao thousands of kilometers away. But bandits, lack of livelihood and civil strife find the Badjaos drifting  back again and again to urban centers including, most recently, in Baguio, the Philippines' summer capital.

                                                                                                                      Photo contributed by Ariston Valle

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