City clean-up for ASEAN Summit starts: Psychotic vagrants, mendicants to be taken away from city streets

Rounding up of psychotic vagrants and mendicants from city streets will be part of a massive clean-up of the entire Cebu City that is scheduled to start tomorrow, in preparations for the ASEAN Summit next month.

Barangay officials, their constituents, and members of non-government organizations have agreed to undertake jointly the massive clean-up of the city.

Barangay officials yesterday met with city officials to discuss concerns over the clean-up project and ways on how to go about them.

Aside from garbage, the barangay captains commented that there should also be focus on psychotic vagrants that roam and sleep on the streets-a situation they said that is deemed an eyesore to tourists or visitors.

Nagiel Banacia, city hall information officer, assured barangay captains that the city will do its best to put vagrants in psychiatric wards but he admitted that the city needs to re-assess its strategy because these people and mendicants keep on returning to the streets.

So concerned were the barangay captains on the presence of vagrants and mendicants that a barangay captain even proposed a radical idea of transporting these people on ships and unload them at another place in the country.

Banacia later requested the barangay leaders to come up with solutions to the problem, at their level, saying that, "the city might not have found a lasting solution."

There was concern also about sidewalk vendors, especially those selling goods along streets that are part of the routes of summit delegates.

They might be requested to relocate but Banacia, due to the absence of relocation site, said that Mayor Tomas Osmeña's policy on sidewalk vendors is to let them stay in their place and for as long as they will keep their surroundings clean, and that there is no complainant.

Another clean-up activity is that contractors will go around the city to collect garbage and non-usable materials that are left lying on the road.

Aside from being responsible for the foreign media people covering the event, Cebu City will also play host to the First Ladies' tour of Cebu.

On the first day of the tour, the First Ladies will be treated to a dinner in Malacañang sa Sugbu, which will have a Hispanic atmosphere that will showcase the various products of Cebu, especially the island's world-class furniture.

The day will be capped with cultural performances and fireworks show at the former Kawit Island. Then the next day, the First Ladies will engage in tree planting at the Family Park in barangay Talamban where a special site will be allocated for the activity.

A tour of Cebu City will immediately follow, starting at the Provincial Capitol that will depict the face of the American era. The Fuente Osmeña rotunda will also be opened to these ladies where they will experience the Filipinos' culture of going to the park and taste the traditional sorbetes.

Colon Street, the city's oldest street, will also undergo a facelift and transformation to a setting that presents the Chinese culture.

The First Ladies will then go to the Magellan's Cross and the Basilica del Santo Niño where they will get to watch the Sinulog dances by the candle vendors. - Joeberth M. Ocao/RAE