Most rescued street dwellers not homeless

CEBU, Philippines —  The 149 street dwellers who were rescued in simultaneous operations around Metro Cebu turned out to be not homeless.

This was announced by the police yesterday, two days after 154 street dwellers and mendicants were rescued.

Wilbert Parilla, deputy city director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said the 149 were found to have homes but opted to live on the streets to beg for alms.

The 149 individuals were already told to go home, he said.

He said only five of the rescued street dwellers are staying at the city-owned halfway house.

The five homeless individuals are set to be sent home to their respective provinces. Some of them are from Mindanao.

At present, their documents are still being processed.

Parilla said the five are locally stranded individuals (LSI) who were forced to loiter in the streets due to lack of money to return home.

All of the rescued individuals underwent swab testing for COVID-19. Results of the tests are yet to be released.

Parilla said most of the individuals were rescued near a church in downtown area where distribution of relief good is done weekly.

“Instead of going home, these supposedly homeless individuals opted to occupy the street so they will be the first to receive the donations,” said Parilla.

He said the church management and those organizing donation drives were advised to turn over the goods to the city’s social welfare office for proper distribution and to avoid throngs of beneficiaries.

Parilla said the rescue operations will continue as only 30 percent of the street dwellers in the city were rounded up. The operation was launched last Friday.

He said a database was created to keep track of the rescued individuals.

Those rescued street dwellers who will be rounded up anew will be charged for violating the city's anti-mendicancy ordinance, said Parilla. — KQD (FREEMAN)