Tatay Baste tries to be street kids’ dad
Chief Insp. Michael Bastes and other policemen of Mandaue City jog with street children on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They go to the church to pray, then have supper together at the social welfare office. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
This police officer has a soft spot for street children.
He is their playmate, protector, coach, and a paternal figure.
Street children in Mandaue city call him “Tatay Baste.”
Aside from being a father to his own four children, Chief Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, head of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) of the Mandaue City Police Office goes out of his way to engage with street children.
The 54-year-old police officer said just like other children who come from a complete or a broken family, happy or sad family, street children need to be taken cared of and respected.
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“I always help these children because they need me. These children need us because they are left by their parents who are in jail,” he said.
“Some parents do not look after their children because they don’t have money to support them, some have a source of livelihood but it is not enough to feed their children. These children are in the streets because they are hungry,” Bastes said.
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Bastes together with other Mandaue police officers, invite street children they see on the streets to join them for jogging from the City Social Welfare and Services (CSWS) office to the National Shrine of Saint Joseph near City Hall, where they stop tol pray.
Then they proceed to the CSWS office for supper.
With partner civic organizations Bastes also conducts feeding programs.
He said activities for the street children keep them away from juvenile delinquency and in the end help bring down the crime rate in the city.
“Let us treat them well because they are rejected. I once read that children ‘are not planned by their parents but they are planned by God.’ That is the reason we should give them a chance to change their lives,” he said.
Bastes said he got his inspiration to treat the street children as his own kids from an incident years ago when he was still assigned at the Cebu City Police Office.
He was taking a nap in his car was surprised to wake up to find several street children surrounding the car. He was confused at first but later found out that the children were watching over him as he slept.
This was the starting point of advocacy for street children.
KERBIN’S INSPIRATION
Twelve-year-old Kerbin Arranguez lives at the Mandaue City public market.
He said he was thankful that Bastes is assigned in Mandaue because it makes him feel safe. He said Bastes encourages him to strive hard and work for a better future.
Kerbin, the second of four siblings, said he dropped out of school because his family didn’t have money to support his education.
“My mother is dead, my father is in prison and my elder sister is already married and has a family of her own,” Kerbin said in Cebuano.
He spends his day wandering the streets begging for food from people he meets.
Kerbin said he looks forward to the jogging session with Bastes every Tuesday and Thursday.
He happily told Cebu Daily News he enjoyed the jogging routine to church with Bastes and the policemen and other street children.
During those evenings, he’s thankful to have a full supper.
Kerbin said if given a chance to go back to school, he would do his best to earn good grades.
When he grows up, he said, he wants to become a policeman just like Bastes.
“Yes, becoming a policeman is a job but for me, from what Tatay Bastes has shown us, I want to help arrest the thieves and the drug users and pushers and help the street children,” the boy said in Cebuano.