Beggars, drug addicts rounded up to spruce up Manila for ASEAN meetings

MANILA (AP) - Police began rounding up beggars, vagrants and drug addicts from the streets of the capital on Wednesday to get them out of sight of Southeast Asian officials gathering for annual meetings.

"We just want to make sure that they are not along roads that ASEAN delegates will be passing through," said Manila city police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Roma Geronimo.

Marciano Paynor, head of the national committee organizing the meetings, defended the move to put the best foot forward for visitors.

"That happens everywhere," he said. "Even in the United States, if you have a visitor, you fix up the place."

Geronimo said the drive to get beggars, street children and drug addicts off Manila's streets was standard operating procedure and that police have intensified the operation as part of a campaign to spruce up the capital for the foreign guests.

Those rounded up are turned over to social welfare authorities or are sent home if they have one, she added.