Council oks P100T aid for psychotic vagrants

The City Council has approved over P100,000 as assistance to at least 100 psychotic vagrants who will be confined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center during the duration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit next week.

In a joint resolution, councilors Gerardo Carillo and Rodrigo Abellanosa said the financial assistance from the city government would be used to defray the cost of food and stay of psychotic vagrants at the hospital.

"The Cebu City Anti-Mendicancy Board through the Department of Social Welfare and Services and the Anti-Mendicancy Task Force will be spearheading a rescue and rehabilitation to psychotic vagrants," the resolution stated.

Catherine Yso, chief of DSWS, said the move is aimed at keeping the psychotic vagrants away from city streets during the summit.

"This support services for psychotic patients will include the provision of medicine, food and other needs," Yso said.

Yso said since the hospital ward was built for only 50 patients, the management had requested the city government to provide assistance to the 100 psychotic vagrants it is accommodating during the summit.

The beneficiaries of the assistance are those psychotic patients referred by the task force and different barangays.

The VSMMC is the only government facility in the province that provides services to psychotic vagrants, but it would just release them after a few days of confinement due to the lack of food and medicine. - Garry B. Lao/LPM