Cebu City starts rounding up street dwellers

[Mike J]

 Kind of a sad article.  Poverty is endemic here and it doesn't go away by shifting people around.  I suspect many, perhaps most, of those "rescued" and sent back to the province will return to the city as quickly as possible.   Not sure what the answer is but this program will have to continue basically forever or it will fail in a short time.

https://ph.yahoo.com/news/cebu-city-starts-rounding-street-043500658.html

 

THE Cebu City Government started rounding up on Wednesday, June 22, minors and adults who chose to live in the city's streets to make a living.

Those rescued will be returned to their respective home provinces.

The City Government is now coordinating with the barangays where these street dwellers belong on what help they can provide to the latter.

The streetchildren who begged for alms from jeepney passengers and passersby, and adults who took shelter in the city's sidewalks have been temporarily placed at the Noah complex in South Road Properties after being rescued by the joint teams from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO); Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (Probe) team; and City Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team (Ceset), waiting to be brought back to their respective home provinces.

Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy city director for administration of CCPO, said they conducted the rescue operation, along with Probe and Ceset after receiving an order from Mayor Michael Rama.

Parilla admitted that some of the minors have already been rescued in their past operation but returned to the city to beg for alms.

At present, street dwellers, some of whom are composed of families, sleeping on the sidewalk outside an abandoned or unoccupied building around the city is very visible, especially during the nighttime.

Parilla said families living under the bridge are the next target of their operations.

He said they would also continue to apprehend minors who are caught loitering outside during the curfew hours.

Mayor Rama's Executive Order 163 has lifted the curfew, except for minors, which will still be imposed from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. 

 

[BrettGC]

26 minutes ago, Mike J said:

 

 

THE Cebu City Government started rounding up on Wednesday, June 22, minors and adults who chose to live in the city's streets to make a living.

 

 

After working in the community welfare sector for a number of years, I can categorically state that living on the street is not a choice for 99% of the homeless.  Granted, I did meet a couple of people who do choose to live this way to make a point or some sort of protest but they were few and far between.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

6 minutes ago, BrettGC said:

After working in the community welfare sector for a number of years, I can categorically state that living on the street is not a choice for 99% of the homeless.

This surprises me because I see it here, where I live in Canada, the same as I saw it in Cebu city.  Homeless people are often given the choice to return whence they came and the government will pick up the tab.  I see so many of them who seem to "choose" to return to homelessness in the city they want to be in rather than have a home where they came from.  Is that not a choice?

[BrettGC]

47 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

This surprises me because I see it here, where I live in Canada, the same as I saw it in Cebu city.  Homeless people are often given the choice to return whence they came and the government will pick up the tab.  I see so many of them who seem to "choose" to return to homelessness in the city they want to be in rather than have a home where they came from.  Is that not a choice?

I was more talking about about the living on the street itself, not necessarily the location.  Yep, in Australia they tried to relocate the homeless out of Sydney back to their points of origin (still homeless once they were there) for the 2000 Olympics, days later they were all back.  

Edited June 25, 2022 by BrettGC

[OzeMike]

16 hours ago, BrettGC said:

After working in the community welfare sector for a number of years, I can categorically state that living on the street is not a choice for 99% of the homeless.  Granted, I did meet a couple of people who do choose to live this way to make a point or some sort of protest but they were few and far between.  

When I lived in Cebu City back in 2008 or there abouts they did a similar program of rounding up all the street kids and sending back to their provinces...most came from the city anyway I reckoned.

After a year or so it was just the same again.

 

 

[scott h]

2 hours ago, Mike J said:

returned to the city to beg for alms.

This is the method I hit on when beggars come up, I stick my hand in my Pocket and pull out (below). They get the message and Filipinos who are watching laugh there butts off

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

This surprises me because I see it here, where I live in Canada, the same as I saw it in Cebu city.  Homeless people are often given the choice to return whence they came and the government will pick up the tab.  I see so many of them who seem to "choose" to return to homelessness in the city they want to be in rather than have a home where they came from.  Is that not a choice?

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

I was more talking about about the living on the street itself, not necessarily the location.  Yep, in Australia they tried to relocate the homeless out of Sydney back to their points of origin (still homeless once they were there) for the 2000 Olympics, days later they were all back.  

I don't think you can compare the "homeless" problem in Philippine cities to the problems in Western countries.  Philippines has true abject poverty in many places, both in cities and provinces.

I don't know anything about the problem in Canada or Australia, but there is plenty documented on the problems on the U.S. West coast, and some other cities.  A very high % of the homeless have a mental illness and/or drug problem.  Unfortunately, many are also vets.  There is minimal resources dedicated to truly end their bad situation.  Most of the West coast cities use money to enable them, not help them.

I have seen interviews with some in Venice, CA.  They like living on the beach.  There are some there that are relatively sane, get government money, and enjoy the way they live.

The U.S. sends billions to Ukraine and does not address the problems at home.  These people, especially the vets, need mental health treatment and mental health hospitals.

[Jollygoodfellow]

15 hours ago, BrettGC said:

I was more talking about about the living on the street itself, not necessarily the location.  Yep, in Australia they tried to relocate the homeless out of Sydney back to their points of origin (still homeless once they were there) for the 2000 Olympics, days later they were all back.  

I think same issue as here. They may send them back to the province here but what is there for them if they are still homeless? By living on the street they have more beggar opportunity's in a city compared to province. Probably hope for a break from the big city like someone will give them a job or at least a handout when needed.