Street dwellers often sleep along Colon Street’s sidewalks at night. | CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Street dwellers, who came from other provinces, are encouraged to go home because the Cebu City government cannot provide shelter for them.
Raquel Arce, Cebu City Public Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (PROBE) head, made this call on Saturday, August 10, after they apprehended 10 street dwellers and found illegal drug paraphernalia during their Saturday (August 10) dawn clearing operations of Colon Street in Cebu City.
Arce said street dwellers apprehended were not arrested but only told to leave the area because it was not a crime to be a street dweller or to sleep in the streets.
She said they asked those street dwellers to leave the area and advised them to return to their provinces.
She also told them to go to the city’s Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS) if they would need assistance to help them to return to their hometowns.
Arce said that during the dawn operation the PROBE team found drug paraphernalia, which were left behind by a street dwellers, who ran away after they saw the team approach them.
She said during the clearing operations they found a bottle believed to have contained the illegal drug, nubain; a syringe, and an empty sachet believed to have contained suspected shabu.
The illegal drugs were turned over to police by the PROBE team.
She said the drug paraphernalia were proof that the street dwellers taking shelter on Colon Street’s sidewalks were not there just to take shelter but also to use illegal drugs./dbs