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Sunday, December 18, 2005
Cebu's anti-mendicancy drive takes new twist
CEBU CITY -- Beggars and street children who will be rounded up by Cebu City Hall's special task force will be fed. But there's a catch: they will also be charged with violating the City's anti-mendicancy ordinance.
The City Council allocated at least P45,000 to pay for their food until they are sent to jail or released on probation.
City Hall wants to make sure they don't go back to the streets, especially during the holidays.
Changing tactics, the City Anti-Mendicancy Board has decided that instead of just gathering and sending home the beggars with canned goods, it will now file criminal complaints.
The complaints will be for violating City Ordinance 1631, which prohibits and penalizes the giving and soliciting by mendicants of cash or goods in public places, buildings, offices, as well as business or commercial establishments.
City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the committee on social services, and board members met with barangay officials from the north and south districts to discuss the strategy Saturday.
The barangays, he told Sun.Star, were told to catch the beggars in their areas and take them to the City's Community Scout Rehabilitation Youth and Guidance Center at the North Reclamation Area or turn them over to the task force.
The task force will work in three shifts.
Adult mendicants caught beyond 9 p.m. will be detained at the Mabolo Police Station, while the minors will be taken to the Pari-an Drop In Center.
Carillo said they will go after mentally disturbed vagrants, beggars and those sleeping on the sidewalks.
Street children or those who will be caroling will also be rounded up.
The task force had a dry run last week and five persons were apprehended. However, they were released after they were made to promise that they would not return to the streets.
"It was just part of our information campaign that we will be rounding them up," Carillo said.
The task force will focus on areas near churches, skywalks and downtown streets where these beggars and mendicants often roam.
Before the end of the week, Carillo expects their operations to go full swing.
He said they have to wait for the appointment of policemen who will be assigned to the task force.
"After we file the case, we will ask the court that instead of imposing penalties, those apprehended will be asked to abide by City Hall's condition that they undergo livelihood training, so they will no longer go back to the streets," Carillo said.
"We are coordinating with the Department of Social Welfare Services for the training," he said.
The City Government will also seek probation for those who will be imposed jail terms so that they will be compelled to undergo livelihood training.
This way, the city jail and the detention center for minors will not be congested further.
The Anti-Mendicancy Board has already come up with three teams composed of five personnel each from the Cebu City Police Office, City Traffic Operations Management, and Squatters Prevention and Encroachment Elimination Division.
City Hall has also formed a legal team that will prepare the necessary information and documents for the filing of the complaints.
Concerned citizens can report any beggar or street child to the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Center by calling 2548375 or 2552260, so the task force can pick up the beggar or child.
The amount the City Council set aside last Wednesday will be used to buy food while the mendicants are still in City Hall custody, as they wait for their referral to temporary shelters, training centers, or jail. (RHM/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(December 18, 2005 issue)
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