DSWD to summon NGOs on ‘caged’ street kids

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will summon the executives of two non-government organizations who were quoted in a tabloid report as saying the government apprehended and “caged” street children to keep the streets clean ahead of Pope Francis’ visit.

The People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (Preda) Foundation, headed by Fr. Shay Cullen; and the Bahay Tuluyan, Inc., whose officials were quoted in the British tabloid Daily Mail Online.

The apprehended street children suffered from miserable conditions in shelters, particularly in Pasay, the tabloid also reported.

“We will ask them what their motives were for claiming those things,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said in a press briefing at the Social Welfare and Development Center for Asia and the Pacific office in Taguig City yesterday morning. 

Soliman said she will insist on the meeting despite the NGOs’ admission that they have no evidence to back up their claims.

“The first thing we did was we called them. They said they have no evidence on the claims they made. But we still want to talk to them,” she said.

Soliman reiterated that the DSWD had investigated the NGOs’ claims and found them to be baseless.

Homeless flee Pasay

At least 50 homeless families have abandoned their makeshift tents along Taft Avenue and other streets in Pasay after police officers were deployed to secure the route of Pope Francis’ motorcade, a city official said yesterday.

Rosalinda Orobia, Pasay social welfare officer, told The STAR that the informal settlers left the city for fear of being “rescued because some of them have criminal records and will end up in jail.”

Street dwellers and street children are targets of regular rescue operations by the city government, she said, adding that 50 informal settler families were given financial assistance to return to their hometowns in the provinces.

“But they kept returning because they earn their living on the streets,” Orobia said.

500 kids ‘rescued’

The British tabloid reported that street children in Pasay were apprehended and detained in shelters.

Orobia, on the other hand, said a total of 500 children were “rescued” in December 2014 alone. She said this figure includes 345 street children and 127 youth offenders who are currently housed at the city’s youth reception center.

Orobia said the city government also rescues children of street vendors.

“Children on the streets are prone to accidents so we have to intervene when their parents bring them to the streets,” she said.      – With Perseus Echeminada