MMDA chief to clean up ‘Gates of Hell’

MANILA, Philippines - After protesting author Dan Brown’s new book that described Manila as the “gates of hell,” Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino will launch a three-week cleanup to clear the city’s waterways and rescue street dwellers.

The newly organized MMDA rescue battalion will round up all people living in the streets, particularly on Roxas Boulevard, and other parts of Manila and turn them over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for processing.

Tolentino said local esteros and waterways would be part of the cleanup drive in preparation for the rainy season to avoid flashfloods that are expected in the next two months.

The MMDA chief earlier described as “inaccurate” Brown’s description of Manila in his new book “Inferno” and Tolentino even wrote a letter to the American author informing him that his depictions were disappointing even if the book is only fiction.

Tolentino clarified that the rescue operations of street dwellers and cleanup of waterways have nothing to do with the controversial book of Brown.

The book described Manila as a place with suffocating pollution, horrifying sex trade where young children are sold to pimps by parents, and motorists are caught in six-hour long traffic jams.

Tolentino, however, declined to comment further on Brown’s book, saying that the issue has been fully discussed and debated even in the international media.

He said the three-week cleanup drive in Manila would also be carried out in other cities in Metro Manila.

The MMDA in coordination with the local government units and the Department of Public Works and Highways would also conduct a census of informal settlers residing along waterways and other danger zones in the metropolis.

The DSWD will provide livelihood assistance to the street dwellers living along Roxas Blvd.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said that adults among the street dwellers would be included in a cash-for-work program of the DSWD where they will be given P320 a day for jobs such as helping out in canal clearing operations or street cleaning activities.

“We hope to link them to a more sustainable livelihood,” Soliman said.

She said that families that have children aged below 14 years old might be covered by the modified conditional cash transfer (CCT) program for families in urban areas to ensure the children go to school and receive medical attention.

The assistance, she said, is apart from the temporary shelter they will seek to provide the relocated street dwellers.

The rescued street dwellers would be taken to the Jose Fabella Center in Mandaluyong City, a halfway house for homeless people run by the DSWD, where they will be provided a complete package of social protection services such as “balik-probinsya assistance” as well as educational, food and livelihood assistance. With Rainier Allan Ronda