MMDA and DSWD to rescue, remove street dwellers along Roxas Blvd

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)  vowed to intensify its rescue operations to remove and relocate street dwellers along the stretch of Roxas Boulevard.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said their agency will establish a satellite office to be manned by DSWD personnel at the ground floor of the MMDA "Gwapotel 1" building along Bonifacio Drive in Port Area, Manila to coordinate the rescue of street dwellers starting next week.

Tolentino likewise ordered an inrease in the number if MMDA personnel involved in the rescue operations from the current 21 to 60.

Tolentino said the  DSWD will help the agency in categorizing the rescued street children and families as well as keeping track on how many of those rescued have returned to the streets.

Tolentino said the rescue operation along Roxas Boulevard will be replicated in other parts of Metro Manila.

"We do not want them roaming the streets and posing danger to themselves and motorists passing the area. It is for their own safety that they be brought to a safe place where they will be taken care of," Tolentino said.

Those resued off Roxas Boulevard will be taken to the Jose Fabella Center in Mandaluyong City, a halfway house for homeless people run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

At the halfway house, the rescued  families will be provided a complete package of social protection services for immediate relief of their conditions.

These include a  "balik-probinsya assistance " program, educational and food assistance to in-school street children and livelihood assistance and a cash for work component,

Meanwhile, DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman said her agency is alarmed by the ever increasing number of street dwellers , especially children and minors along Rox Boulevard.

Soliman said the DSWD will be  closely coordinating with the various local government chief executives in the cities of Manila, Pasay and Parañaque to achieve the goal of "zero streetchildren" along Roxas Boulevard before June 12.