Life and death in the streets

CEBU, Philippines - Homeless couple Pedring and Erlinda Vilasco stuck it out together for better and for worse. Now, after nearly 30 years, they will forever be apart.

For the last three years they lived in a small space at the corner of V. Gullas and Mabini streets, watching time and life pass by together and never without each another. But just recently, their years of being together ended after Erlinda, died of an asthma attack last Saturday morning. 

Pedring, 60, a native of Manila, said a medical team scrambled to save his wife, but he could only look on helplessly as her life faded away.

Though homeless for years, the Vilascos did everything they could to stay alive. Pedring recalls having a small sari-sari store near the Basilica del Santo Niño.

They had enough supplies to keep them alive he reckoned. Unfortunately, one day, their stocks and their small store were taken away by the Squatters Prevention, Elimination and Encroachment Division of the city government.

Pedring got upset when the SPEED took away their livelihood. That was why retreated to a small space corner on V. Gullas and Mabini streets. Because everyone in the neighborhood knew the couple, the owner of the building where they took shelter allowed them to stay. In exchange, they cleaned the entire block everyday.

However, SPEED never ceased to haunt them, even in their new spot. Though in a private lot, Pedring recalled that one night while slept SPEED personnel woke them up and took their sleeping mats and drove them away from their spot.

The couple pleaded for their mats and blankets as it was the rainy season and the night was very cold but SPEED personnel refused to heed their pleas, saying instead they were only following instructions from their boss.

Erlinda sank into tears as they were left shivering in the cold night with only their soaked clothes on their back.  

Only some of the many

Pedring and Erlinda are just two of over 450 street dwellers that the Cebu City government has identified through the Department of Social Welfare and Services.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama instructed DSWS to conduct profiling of street dwellers to gather data about their origins and their current conditions. 

Over three weeks after DSWS started profiling; hundreds of street dwellers continue to suffer under extreme conditions. The sad part is that they might just be too late for some of them, like Erlinda.

The Cebu City government last year already had P5 million excess funds which were supposed to be for street dwellers. However, after Erlinda died last Saturday and some residents of Barangay Roque helped Pedring ask assistance from the city government, but to their dismay, the process was for them, a new obstacle.

Some concerned residents took matters into their own hands and paid for Erlindas’s wake and burial last Tuesday from their own pocket.

Will there be any changes after Cebu Mayor Michael Rama delivers his State of the City Address today? Will their lives improve together with the rest of the Cebuanos? Only time will tell. (FREEMAN)