CEBU CITY – Police here have found out that not all of the street dwellers they rescued in massive operations last Friday were homeless.
As they later found, most of the 154 street dwellers and mendicants they took off the streets of this city actually had places to live in.
Police Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla, deputy city director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said only five of those rescued were staying at a city-owned halfway house, with 149 found to have homes in the city.
Parilla said most of the individuals were rescued near a church in downtown area where there was a weekly distribution of relief goods.
"The goods are donated by the church and some private individuals. 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.
To prevent people from camping in the area, Parilla said they have already advised church officials about the modus operandi of the persons pretending to be homeless.
Parilla also said those who were planning to donate goods to the less fortunate to just turn these over to the city’s social welfare office for proper distribution.
He said a data base has been created to record information about rescued individuals, and those who will be caught again will be charged for violating the city's anti-mendicancy ordinance.
The rescued individuals underwent swab testing to ensure that they were coronavirus disease (COVID-19) free, said Parilla.
The remaining five individuals staying in a city-owned shelter were found to be locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who were forced to live on the streets due to lack of money to go home.
"The city will help them return to their provinces. Some of them are from Mindanao," said Parilla.
The rescue operations on Friday went smoothly as the street dwellers cooperated with the police and personnel of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, City Health Department and Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (PROBE) team.
Stray animals were also rescued during the one-day operation.
Parilla said the police were able to round up about 30 percent of the total number of street dwellers in the city, and bared that more rescue operations will be conducted in the coming days.