Wednesday, November 08, 2006 Carvajal: Great escape By Orlando P. Carvajal Break Point
THE mentally ill vagrants were not transported and dumped in the mountain barangays. So, says Councilor Gerardo Carillo. They simply escaped from the bus when its engine conked out. The next day when the task force went back for them they were told that the barangay officials have “escorted the vagrants home.”
Come on, Councilor, give me a break.
If politics is the art of the impossible, then this is one explanation that is impossible to believe but which our politicians, represented here by Councilor Carillo, want us to believe. It has window dressing written all over it but believe we probably will since we live in a country where what is true is what the politicians say is true. Like if President Arroyo or Mayor Tommy Osmeña says there was no cheating in the last elections then there was no cheating.
But how can we believe such an explanation? The bus brought the mentally ill vagrants to the mountains last Oct. 17 yet. If what happened was as simple as Councilor Carillo’s report to the city administrator, why did it take so long (in Sun.Star’s Nov. 6 issue) for the investigation to come up with it, simple as it is? Why, in fact, was there a need to investigate? Why didn’t the task force just simply say so right after the incident aroused the people’s and, of course, the press’ curiosity?
How can we now avoid thinking that those responsible for the incident needed so many days to cover up what they were really trying to do to our mentally ill vagrants? How can we believe that mentally ill vagrants could put one over the task force, yes, outsmart them in staging a great escape?
Be that as it may, and call it Divine Providence, but our mentally ill vagrants’ great escape comes as a timely indictment of the way Cebu’s civil, religious and political societies are treating them. If Cebu society had a place for the mentally ill, this incident would never have happened. To Councilor Carillo’s credit, the incident did highlight the City’s need to have a home for its poor mentally ill vagrants.
I would not be surprised, however, if the transport of these mentally ill vagrants to the mountain barangays was someone’s brainstorm on what to do with these human “eye sores” in a city that is feverishly beautifying itself to face foreign guests, dignitaries. Still it had the effect of scandalizing many into wondering why can’t we brainstorm on how to care for the mentally ill instead of just letting them roam the streets as grim and grimy testimony to our insensitivity.
More than anybody else the mentally ill need caring. They have escaped from the madness of our world into an inner world where nobody can hurt them anymore. If we do not take care of them, we really only hurt ourselves.
