City policemen feed, entertain street kids

Feeding sessions, film showings and parlor games will be held in different police stations on different days in Cebu City for a month.

Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, Cebu City Police Office chief, said Friday that these activities were part of the Police Community Relations Month, which started this July 1.

Last Friday, at least 800 street children filled the Cebu City Police Office as they ate “lugaw” or congee, cotton candy and ice cream.

They were also entertained by a mascot and watched films at the polices station’s audio visual room.

The activities were all part of the  Adlaw sa Mga Libod Suroy at the police office and part of the PCR month.

Buenafe said aside from the entertainment, the policemen also taught the children basic responsibility and good morals and right conduct.

He said that the policemen wanted to be a role model of the children.

“We taught them to pray before eating, to wash dishes and do some household chores and to respect one another,” said Buenafe.

Some street children also benefited from the Cebu City Police Office education program, where expenses for the children’s schooling would be shouldered by the police office.

A 15-year-old orphan was one of the 10 children who benefited from the program.

The boy is a grade 1 student of a public school in the city.

“Karon pa jud ko kaeskwela kay gipa-eskwela ko ni sir,” said the boy, who was referring to Fuente Police Station chief Michael Anthony Bastes, who agreed to shoulder the boy’s education expenses.

He joined some children eating lugaw, cotton candy, and ice cream at the station.

Another boy Christian, 12, is one of the streetchildren whom Bastes agreed to send to school.

Christian is the youngest of five children and his brothers and sisters had no decent job to send him to school.

During the film-showing, a 10-year-old boy was seen holding his pack lunch as he enjoyed the show.

When asked why he didn’t eat his food, he said he was already full and he was saving it for his mother

Buenafe said the PCR month activities and programs were all part of the pro-active measures the Cebu City police were implementing to prevent children from committing crimes.

“Prevention is better than cure and we take them away from dangerous situations,” said Buenafe.