We hope that last week’s roundup of 55 minors by the Mandaue City police, while accomplished without a hitch, was not just for show because police officers in Manila had been doing the same thing and more just two weeks and two days before President-elect Rodrigo Duterte formally assumes office.
In Manila, police have been rounding up rowdy drunks that wander half-naked in the streets and making them do pushups to determine just how sober they are. Minors who are caught smoking and inhaling solvents are also brought in.
That there is an existing 17-year-old ordinance that prohibits minors from wandering the streets from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Why authorities and for that matter Metro Cebu local governnments were unable to enforce it and thus prevent the proliferation of streetkids that not only smoke, drink and do drugs but also badger passersby, were known in part by last week’s roundup.
Cebu City has reasons for not being able to strictly enforce their curfew ordinance—about 9,000 or more of them who are students of the city’s night school project who are dismissed from their classes by 9 or 10 p.m. when the ordinance is in effect.
Maybe these students can be granted exemption if they present their school ID cards and if so, Cebu City officials should figure out how to exempt them.
Cebu City acting Mayor Margot Osmeña was also right when she pointed out that there are rich minors who ride in their vehicles accompanied by their bodyguards.
While the ordinance may impact heavily on those who can ill afford to have their own cars and bodyguards, we think the ordinance should apply to them as well as they should not use their wealth to exempt themselves from following the law. It’s a matter of both enforcement and political will.
In all these areas, we also note that there are a lack, if not the absence, of adequate holding centers for these minor violators.
If these LGUs can hardly afford to build jails, let alone classrooms, then we’re not surprised why they don’t have holding facilities for these wayward minors.
Cebu City has its Parian Drop-Off center for minors but it sorely lacks the budget and even it cannot accommodate all minors caught wandering the streets beyond 9 p.m.
Much as LGUs want to enforce the law, it needs the help of nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and more importantly, the parents and guardians in making sure that these children are at home before the curfew takes effect.
True, they can be accompanied by elders, but the parents need to rest too and not all can afford to stay in hotels for a nightcap.
Now that the school year has began, the enforcement of the curfew for minors gives meaning to the expression “school nights.”
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