Kadamay calls for the urgent release of 'rescued' street dwellers at Manila Boystown

Urban poor group Kadamay registers its demand for the urgent release of street dwellers being held at Manila Boystown, a shelter under the management of the local government of Manila.

This in response to a video released by DZMM’s Radyo Patrol about the complaints of street dwellers who were allegedly deceived by authorities into going to the Boystown in exchange for groceries and foods.

The number of street dwellers rounded up in Manila’s clearing operations rose as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting drew nearer.

On Monday alone, the “rescued” street dwellers were pegged at 300 — a huge leap from the previous 60 a day figure recorded by the city’s local social welfare department.

At least 300 street dwellers from the streets of Manila were were now held at the Manila Boystown in Parang, Marikina, according to Jean Ramos, the Officer-in-Charge of the institution.

Kadamay continues to air its disgust over the purging of street-dwellers by the Aquino government of its window dressing effort in preparation for the Apec summit on November 18-19.

“The habit of purging of street dwellers in Manila has to stop. It is like a modern-day apartheid inflicted against the poor in the name of Apec-endorsed economic development and globalization, " said Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national chairperson.

“Every time there is a big international event, the government would scramble to hide the poor and homeless from the eyes of the international media and guests. The poor are coerced into joining their ‘rescue’ operation then after, they go back to the streets only to return to their impoverished conditions,” said Arellano.

During the visit of Pope Francis in January, the Aquino government rounded up at least 600 street dweller families from Roxas Boulevard to a resort in Batangas for a five-day CCT ‘program orientation’ to keep them away from the route of the papal motorcade.

Recue operation, not purging

Reach out operations are carried out by a joint team of police, barangay and social workers dubbed as rescue teams. Manila’s six districts have their own rescue teams, according to the social welfare department of Manila.

After the operations, residents are brought to Boystown in Marikina. Non-residents, meanwhile, were taken to Jose Fabella Center in Mandaluyong. They can stay there for three days to two weeks.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo earlier accused the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) of plotting to conceal the street dwellers from the Apec’s foreign participants by offering them P4,000 to rent a temporary home.

Meanwhile, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said what her agency was doing was not a clearing-out operation but a “year-long, reach-out program” implemented through the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Homeless Street Families (MCCT-HSF) and was not part of clearing operations for the Apec summit.

On the contrary, Arellano said that while the DSWD's move is a clear manifestation of the naiveté if not the rudeness of the Aquino administration in dealing with the poor, it is very evident that the Aquino administration has been using the CCT program to advance its own political interests.

"What then happened to the Aquino administration’s Daang Matuwid slogan that that the poor are his bosses," asked Arellano.

Failure to address poverty

"The presence of street dwellers in the streets of the Metro Manila, including the 'illegal' street vendors is a clear manifestation of the failure of not only the Aquino administration but also of APEC to address unemployment and poverty in the country," said Arellano.

"Their presence is actually a slap in the face of Apec Economic Leaders’ Meeting delegates who will once again convene to legitimize a more brutal implementation of neoliberal policies that were been proven to be anti-people in the past three decades," she added.

It will be the second for the Philippines to host ang APEC summit since 1996.

Poorer after APEC 1996

According to Kadamay, instead of its promise to alleviate millions of Filipinos from poverty, the the number of poor and hungry Filipinos became record-high since 1996.

Kadamay also cited data from independent think-tank Ibon which claimed the number of Filipino workers who are unemployed and underemployed has grown from 8.3 million in 1996 to 12.2 million this year. Ibon also claims it is the worst job crisis in the history of the country.

Meanwhile, production from the manufacturing sector has dwindled from 25% in 1995-2000 to 22.6% in 2010-2014 as Ibon cited that tens of thousands of small and medium enterprises went bankrupt after losing the local market completion to big multi-national companies.

In its 2014 year-end report, the also think-tank said that 66 million or roughly 68% of the population earns P125 or lead per day. While the profit of top 40 riches businessmen in the country is at record-high P3.4 trillion this year.

“There is an urgent need to turn our back on the neoliberal policies endorsed by Apec in the name of globalization to bring justice to the millions of poor Filipinos, the street dwellers included, that has brought poverty to the country and other poor nations in the last 3 decades,” Arellano ended. ###