Street dwellers ‘rescued’ by local officials complain that their sleeping area in the Compania Maritima building is flooded. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
The street dwellers who were recently rounded up are not complaining that local officials have to hide them from tourists and international delegates to the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC).
But they lamented that they are being hidden in a building that gets flooded.
Ronel Villacencio, 45, said the ground floor of the abandoned Compania Maritima building, where they are temporary housed, has been flooded and the children were getting sick.
As of yesterday afternoon, there were 20 individuals in the abandoned building, including babies as young as 2 months old.
Villacencio was among those “rescued” by the Cebu City’s Department of Social Welfare Services (DSWS) in partnership with the Cebu Provincial Government Monday night.
“It’s good that they found us a shelter to stay in. But if it’s flooding like this, and mosquitoes start to gather, it would be better if we just find shelter on the streets,” Villacencio told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano.
Villacencio is from Toledo City and has made a living selling cigarettes and bottled water in major thoroughfares in Cebu City.
Since it is an extra expense for him to travel from Toledo to Cebu City everyday, he does not go home often and spends most of his nights sleeping on the street.
Over 50 cots have been laid out inside the building. Electricity is available only at night.
“Okay ra namo ang round-up. Taronga lang sab tawn. Kami na ang pobre, kami pa ang ipaantos ug ingon ani (Being rounded up is fine with us but please be kind to us. We are being made to suffer more),” Villacencio said.
He lamented that there is no food nor potable water at the Compania Maritima.
Cebu City’s DSWS chief Ester Concha, who is also a member of the City Anti-Mendicancy Board, has repeatedly denied that these are “round-ups”, and instead called them “reach-out operations” or “rescue operations”.
“This is an ongoing program of the Cebu City government. We just want to lessen the amount of people living and sleeping on the street. This is being done to help them,” Concha told Cebu Daily News.
The reach-out or rescue operations began last week, before the IEC started.
Concha said the families being rescued are treated properly, and are allowed to use the bathing facilities in the adjacent Devotee City.
The Devotee City, which has over 120 container vans, is still open to pilgrims for temporary stay.
Meriam Cabaluna, over-all administrator of the Devotee City for the past six years, said only 11 pilgrims are housed there. Seven pilgrims from Barili arrived yesterday afternoon. Four pilgrims came from Dumanjug and Leyte two days ago.
Concha said the total number of families gathered during the round-up operations has reached 40.
As of yesterday morning, more than half of these families were sent back to their hometowns.
Those who have nowhere to go will be moved to a P4-million two-story facility for night dwellers, which will be completed by next week.