Rugby Boys take over Ermita?

Right in the heart of Manila’s tourist district, Ermita, solvent addicts appear to have started appropriating the area for themselves, virtually unmolested by police.

From what started as a handful of young contact cement – more popularly known as rugby-addicts whose ages then were 15 and below, their ranks now include fully grown men who openly flaunt their sniffing from plastic or bottles.

The biggest concentration of these solvent addicts or, "Rugby Boys," are on Pedro Gil street, where they were months ago.

It was also along Pedro Gil where a cellular phone store was robbed early in the morning some months ago; and three people, including its proprietor, were herded into its comfort room and shot in the head one after another.

The addicts either pester pedestrians into giving them money or recklessly run around the area unmindful of vehicles that could hit them.

Pedro Gil is also notorious for snatchers and bag lifters because of its heavy volume of pedestrians, mostly students.

"Yes we conduct operations in the area, if you report them to our sub-station, they will be arrested," said Ermita policemen reached by The STAR.

But at Ermita police’s Sta. Monica sub-station, which has jurisdiction over Pedro Gil, its members were at a loss as to whether they have existing orders to round up the street junkies.

The Sta. Monica police commander, Senior Inspector Lensley Fillejera, was not available for interview yesterday.