The problem on street dwellers in Cebu City has become one of the major concerns of the city government and the Cebu Archdiocese as they prepare to host the 51st International Eucharistic Congress next year.
In line with the IEC preparations, the city and the archdiocese are working to solve the problem. During a meeting last week, the rising number of street dwellers and the road traffic were among the pressing issues that officials said would need to be addressed.
However, Fr. Wendell Balbuena expressed concern that any act of clearing the streets of homeless families, mendicants, among others, might be misinterpreted as being done because of the IEC.
Balbuena said: "Ingon ko nila, dili kaha ta ma-misunderstood nga moingon sila nga we drive away people nga naa sa kadalanan? Dili ingon nga hiposon sila kun dili unsay puwede mabuhat aning mga tawhana."
Fr. Balbuena has a point. The city and the archdiocese should be careful in dealing with those street dwellers in this time when they are busy preparing for the IEC. Any act to drive them away is certainly a wrong move.
The IEC is purely a religious event. And ridding the streets of dwellers as part of its preparations is tantamount to taking away the sacredness of the congress, which is one of the major events of the Catholic Church.
The problem is that the city government has not been doing well in the effort to solve the problem on street people. In fact, it is under the Rama administration that we saw a significant rise in their number.
Now, we have to admit that the problem has already been taking a huge toll on the city's image because of complaints involving street children victimizing foreign tourists in the uptown area.
It is unfortunate that while the Rama administration has been pushing hard its beautification project, it has miserably failed in the campaign to assist the homeless, whose daily presence along the city streets has already become an eyesore.