Sunday, October 29, 2006 Cabaero: Summit-linked social concerns By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
The coming Asean summit is providing the community with an opportunity to take a fresh look at two social concerns. These are the treatment of psychotic vagrants and the continued employment of minors in karaoke bars and prostitution dens.
With the holding of the summit in Cebu this December, local officials are trying to address the two social issues because these could give Cebu a bad name if visiting heads of state and their delegations and the foreign media know about them. That is the justification put forward by those now wanting psychotic vagrants and the issue of child workers properly addressed.
Cebu City officials raised last week the need for bigger permanent shelter for vagrants with the rounding up of vagrants from the different urban areas. The existing facility at the regional hospital is overcrowded and its administrator is seeking help on how to accommodate and manage the growing number of patients.
What the hospital is resorting to is to simply give the vagrants a bath, a change of clothes and a fresh supply of medicine; they are then released back to the streets. The Cebu City hospital does not have its own mental ward.
Maybe for lack of space in the regional hospital, some of the vagrants were reportedly brought by bus to the mountain barangays. Mayor Tomas Osmeña wasn't happy with these reports and promised to investigate, and a city councilor is pushing for a partnership with the private sector for the establishment of a new center.
For years now, minors have been known to work in karaoke bars and in prostitution dens in Cebu. They are among the 26,000 children that the labor department in the region has recorded as forced by poverty to leave school to find work, whether in the underground manufacturing or in the entertainment sectors.
Central Visayas labor department director Elias Cayanong said it is a "black eye" to Cebu to have children on the streets offering their bodies for the pleasure of customers. He said this practice could damage Cebu's reputation when foreign dignitaries come for the summit.
Closing prostitution dens and karaoke bars for violating the Children's Welfare Code is in the agenda as part of the preparations for the international gathering.
These could be positive local and social outcome to the hosting of the summit. It would be good if actions to address these concerns will be given the same focus, like a deadline with a running countdown similar to the monitoring being done on the other projects related to summit preparations.
