Rama done defending lack of program for streetkids
SAYING he was “not in the mood” to defend himself, suspended Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday said Acting Mayor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña can go ahead and carry out programs benefiting the street children.
“If they’re thinking they should address it, they should address it. I give it to them. They have been talking about it and I’m not in the mood on defending because I already have defended that,” Rama said.
“So they have time to have all of these done when June 30 will come. Then if whatever they think ought to be done, under their own whims and caprices, their own discernment, their own prerogative, their own way of analyzing it, so be it,” he added.
Rama said he had wanted to revive several programs, including the Mobile School Program.
“I don’t have to go back. There were reasons for that. I did not stop that and if they want to pursue, and the requirements are present, go ahead. I don’t have to be telling them what to do. How I wish I could have done that before. But my intention really was to bring it back but there was some technical concerns about it,” he said in a press conference yesterday.
Osmeña had lamented how street children were not given priority in the Rama administration.
The mobile school program was initiated by the Children of Cebu Foundation (CCF), which was founded by Osmeña. Under the program, reconfigured buses fetch children from slum areas so they can be given informal education.
It had to be discontinued in 2011 when the city government did not renew anymore the contracts of several teachers and drivers who were being paid by the city government.
Redentor Betito, program coordinator of the CCF and Cebu City Task Force on Street Children (CCTFSC), said no one from the Rama administration approached them for help in reviving the program.
“Honestly, for me personally, I cannot say yes (that the Rama administration exerted efforts to revive the program). If there were any, it could have really happened. If they wanted it, there should be a way,” he told CDN in a phone interview yesterday.
The foundation tried to sustain the program for one year and a half but he said the overhead costs were too much for them since they were just relying on donors.
Meanwhile, Supt. Michael Bastes said he planned to ask the Cebu City government to allow the use of the former office of the Police Station 2 at the Fuente Osmeña Circle as a shelter for street children and venue for a feeding program.
He said he wanted to resume roving the city streets at night to rescue the street children and bring them to the former Station 2 for temporary shelter.
“We already planned a feeding program in Barangay Day-as. But for the rest of the activities we are looking into, we still have to meet with the officers of the social welfare and the city government for consultation,” Bastes added.
Bastes was formerly assigned to Station 2, but was transferred to the Mandaue City Police Office, where he gathered young street children every morning for jogging. He was assigned back to Cebu City as chief of the City Intelligence Branch (CIB) more than a month ago.
“Since I sat in office (at the CCPO), I have been receiving calls from friends about street children seen sniffing rugby in Barangay Banilad. We plan to rescue them,” he said.
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