ROUND UP STREET CAROLERS

ROUND UP STREET CAROLERS/DEC. 21, 2018: Cebu City councilor Dave Tumulak, deputy mayor on Police Matters ordered barangay officials to deploy their barangay tanods and round up street carolers.(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Christmas is only two sleeps away, and authorities in Cebu City are now stepping up their measures to reinforce the City Ordinance that bans mendicancy in the streets.

Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, the Deputy Mayor on Police Matters, announced yesterday, Friday (December 21), that they will be giving instructions to barangay officials to deploy their respective tanods (village watchmen) this holiday season to round up mendicants, particularly street carolers.

Tumulak said the presence of village watchmen would help officers from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) in ensuring that the streets are clear of carolers, as well as keep commuters, pedestrians and holiday shoppers safe from criminals.

“We need the assistance of our barangay tanods. Keeping our streets safe is also part of their responsibility, especially that Christmas is drawing near.

This is why we’re asking the barangay officials to deploy them,” Tumulak explained.

Cebu City has over 1,600 tanods from all of its 80 barangays.

The Cebu City government has long banned the giving of money to street carolers to keep the roads safe, especially during the holiday rush and the Sinulog Festival held every third week of January.

In 2011, the then Cebu City Council approved an ordinance amending City Ordinance 1931, also known as the Anti-Mendicancy Law, to include street caroling in the ban.

It imposes a P500 fine or imprisonment of at most five days on those caught caroling on city streets and inside public utility jeepneys (PUJs). An option is for the arrested violator to render eight hours of community service or be meted with any of the three penalties, depending on the discretion of the court.

Rescued minors
For minors caught violating this ordinance, they will be immediately referred to social workers of the city’s Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) or to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7).

But as early as November this year, officials from CCPO have already warned street carolers that they, too, would be rounding them up since the carolers themselves would be at risk of getting involved in vehicular accidents while they are singing Christmas carols on the streets in exchange for money.

Since November 16, all 11 police stations in the city were directed to start “rescuing” minors doing street caroling in the streets, and arrest adults who still violate the anti-mendicancy law.

Although the ban on street caroling is year-long, DSWS acting director Flora Bartolome said it has been a trend that the number of minors rescued off the streets usually rise during December and January.

“Twice a week man ta mag-rescue operations kay year-long ban man gyud na siya. Pero daghan gyud na sila during sa Pasko ug kanang padulong na sa Sinulog (We conduct rescue operations twice a week since it’s a year-long ban. But a lot of them are rescued off the streets during Christmas and when Sinulog is drawing near),” Bartolome told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview.

According to Bartolome, parents of minors caught violating the city’s Anti-Mendicancy Law will also undergo counseling and training to remind them of their duties as parents.

“Sa katong mga minors nga walay kaulian, i-house nato sila temporarily sa community scouts around several weeks para i-train sila to be law-abiding individuals (For those who don’t have anyone to go home to, we will house them temporarily through our community scouts program for around several weeks to train them to be law-abiding individuals),” she added.

But since they are not authorized to detain minors who keep violating the law, Bartolome said they will be released eventually after undergoing several programs handled by social workers.

She also said this has always been “the cycle.”

“If walay kaso, di man ta pwede nga i-detain na sila so makagawas ra gihapon na sila. Cycle na gyud na siya (If they are no complaints, we are not allowed to detain them, so they will still be released. That’s the cycle),” added Bartolome.

New modus
Meanwhile, Tumulak added that they received information from various concerned citizens of a new modus operandi this Christmas being perpetrated by criminals, where they would act as carolers and would threaten passengers in public utility jeepney (PUJs) with physical harm if they would refuse to give them money.

“Malisang ang atong pasahero aning bag-ong modus ron. Manaygon unya mangayo daw sila ug pinaskohan dala inisog ug pampahadlok (Our passengers are scared of this new modus. Criminals engaged in caroling with intimidation and threats),” said Tumulak.

“Mao sad nga nagremind ta sa atong mga kapulisan ug mga tanods nga bantayan ang mga kadalanan nato labi na aning bag-ong modus nila (This is also why we remind our policemen and tanods to secure our streets especially from the criminals engaging in this new modus),” he added.

Tumulak also said they will be asking assistance from traffic enforcers to apprehend those who will be found caroling and committing crimes in the streets.

“If pwede mangayo sad ta ug tabang sa atong mga traffic enforcers sa kadalanan para lang safe atong mga tawo karung Pasko (If it’s okay, we want to ask help from our traffic enforcers to keep the public safe this Christmas),” Tumulak added.