Rescue or cleanup?

No doubt they need rescuing. Those people on the streets. No one deserves to live like that. Sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom, doing what others do in the confines of their own homes out in the open for everyone else to see. Their lives, an open book.

Children are especially at risk. They should be in school instead of haranguing total strangers about how hungry they are. They shouldn’t be running around on sidewalks naked, or sidling up to pedestrians for a buck or two. The homeless are obvious targets of drunkards, hooligans and other criminal elements that prowl the streets.

They’re prone to abuse. They’re also prone to diseases since they have no access to potable water or proper sanitation. They’re forced to breathe in the exhaust from the thousands of vehicles that clog the thoroughfares.

So people like Jocelyn Mañego, the 25-yearold native of Asturias town, and her husband Roland and their three kids deserve to be rescued.

And they have. But for someone who has supposedly been taken out of her misery, Jocelyn doesn’t sound very grateful. More like resigned to her fate.

“We always go back to the sidewalk because we don’t have a house. We have no problem if they rescue us. We are cooperative, as long as we’re allowed to leave the temporary shelter to continue our livelihood,” she told SunStar Cebu’s Razel V. Cuizon in Cebuano.

It was not the first time that the Mañegos were rescued by the Cebu City Government. They were whisked away when the city hosted the IEC last year. And then again when the city hosted Apec meetings.

So when Jocelyn found out that the city was going to be the venue for a meeting of the 31st Asean Summit, she and her family knew what to expect.

Since Monday, a joint team from several government agencies, including the Cebu City Government and the police, has rescued 180 individuals.

Their stay will be temporary. The government can’t well afford to feed them indefinitely. The five kilos of rice, eight canned goods and six coffee packs that were distributed to the families don’t come cheap.

Which brings me to my question. Did the City rescue these families out of the goodness of its heart or was it doing an Imelda? It’s rhetorical, by the way. We all know what will happen once the Asean Summit delegates leave. Jocelyn, her family and the 175 other individuals will go back to their corner of Cebu City to eke out an existence. Perhaps hoping for another international event to come the city’s way.