ABC wants building for beggars in city

CEBU, Philippines - The Association of Barangay Councils wants Cebu City to provide an agency or a building for adult mendicants who will be rounded up during the full enforcement of the Anti-Mendicancy Ordinance.

ABC head Guadalupe barangay captain Eugenio Faelnar raised the issue on what to do with adult mendicants after Anti-Mendicancy Task Force head Isabelita Ganub encouraged the barangay captains to implement the said law during their general assembly yesterday.

However Faelnar said before they can apprehend, there should be a clear process, an area or a building where the adult mendicants will be taken after being rounded up in the barangays.

The juvenile mendicants, Faelnar said, have no problem since these are taken to the Parian Drop-In Center and the Cebu City Community Scout Center.

He cited the case of a foreigner mendicant who until now is under the care of his barangay personnel as the latter is already unable to walk.

“Mura ni sya og Taiwanese, dili sya kamao mobinisaya, nya dili pa gyud makalakaw, kami tawn nag-atiman kay wa may mudawat, wa man mi kahibaw asa dad-on,” Faelnar said.

The barangay captains said even the Psychiatric Ward of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center said they are no longer accepting psychotic vagrants.

Ganub said the barangay captains will have to coordinate with them should they need to endorse someone at the Psychiatric Ward since such is a recipient of funding from the city government.

Ganub was also telling the barangay captains that a proposal is already underway at the City Council to let the barangays get a share of the citation tickets they issued in implementing the ordinance.

The Anti-Mendicancy Ordinance punishes both the mendicant and the giver a uniform fine of P1,000. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP