SOCIAL Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman disputed the claim of a human rights group that hundreds of homeless families were taken off the streets ahead of the arrival of foreign dignitaries during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
But Manila mayor and former President Joseph Estrada said the solution to homelessness in Metro Manila should be addressed by the mayors of the metropolis, who are members of the Metro Manila Council.
“We have to sit down together to work out and implement a permanent solution to the issue of street dwelling families. We have had enough of the band-aid solution to the problem,” Estrada said after he was criticized for fighting the poor instead of combatting poverty.
Soliman, on the other hand, said in a statement that the Manila Department of Social Welfare only “reached out” to 77 families so they can be “interviewed and assessed for the provision of appropriate services.”
“What the media saw during the visit at the Boystown were regular residents of the center who have been reached out much earlier than the city wide reach-out operation,” Soliman said after television footage showed people complaining that they were being forcibly detained at the facility.
The families admitted that they were homeless people living on the streets of Manila and they were forcibly taken by city hall authorities to the Boystown, a facility in Marikina City owned by the City of Manila.
During the assessment, 12 families were assessed to be potential beneficiaries of the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Families for Homeless Families and two were qualified under the regular Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Soliman said.
She said families were provided a complete package of assistance, including responsive shelter program, access to social services, and economic opportunities for the improvement of their living conditions.
She said they were also given up to P4,000 per month to help them pay for rental payments, which is paid directly to the lessor and not the families, for six months to one year.
Some 73 adults were also provided Cash-for-Work (CFW) where they helped in cleaning the quarters and the surroundings of the center. The CFW beneficiaries received P360 per day.
At the same time, Soliman denied that the homeless people who re-appeared in the streets of Manila after the departure of the APEC dignitaries were the same ones who were brought to Boystown.
Soliman maintained that those people may have come from other areas and “they too will be reached-out by the Department in partnership with the [local government unit] so that their needs will also be assessed.”
Estrada, on the other hand, insisted that local officials should find a permanent solution and discuss the matter with President Benigno Aquino III.
Estrada said the city government in coordination with the Metro Manila Development Authority and Department of Social Welfare and Development has a continuing campaign to rescue homeless families.
But he emphasized that the program was not meant only during special events like the recently concluded hosting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila and the visit of Pope Francis last January.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo earlier this month slammed the practice of “hiding” the homeless during important international events.
“Their solution is temporary. They want to show the visitors that there are no poor people, but why can’t we find a permanent solution for our poor people? One that doesn’t require us to hide them every time there are visitors?” Pabillo said.
But Estrada said he “firmly believes that as part of fulfilling our mandate to care for the citizens and help them have productive lives, we should implement a permanent solution to the issue on street dwelling families.”
“Anything short of that, like hiding these people during special events in our country as critics claimed, would just be a ‘Band-Aid solution,’ or temporarily covering the wound or the problem,” the former president said.
