Gov’t hit for attempt to hide homeless during APEC summit

(Photo from ShutterStock/Stephane Bidouze)

MANILA – The government has again received flak on Tuesday for its plan to hide homeless families during the country’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to be held next week in Manila.

The Aquino administration, however, denied such allegation and clarified that the P4,000 given to each poor family was part of the government’s pro-poor programs.

“The expanded or modified CCT (conditional cash transfer) is part of a government program to promote poverty reduction and social development of the poorest of the poor in the country,” Communications Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. said in The Standard report, adding that the P4,000 was part of the program.

Partido Manggagawa spokesman Wilson Fortalza noted that the administration earlier took street families out of the cities during the state and papal visit of Pope Francis in January and could likewise do the same.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman then explained that the government’s action was not intended to hide homeless families but was a way of ‘reaching out’ to them.

“‘Yung ginagawa ng DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), at ‘yung pagtulong po nila ay hindi po limited sa tuwing mayroong malaking event,” Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in Sunstar report.

“Nakikita po natin itong pagkakataon na simulan ang pagtulong sa kanila para makapag-transition naman po sila from the streets into dignified living quarters,” she added.

(What the DSWD is doing, and the assistance they give is not limited to when there’s a big event… We see this as an opportunity to start helping them for them to transition from the streets into dignified living quarters.)

With regards to the DSWD’s activities coinciding with international events, Valte asserted that these were just coincidental.

“Ilang taon na pong nangyayari ito at hindi po naitataon… Baka naitataon lang pong nairereport kapag mayroong malaking event, pero ang katotohanan po diyan ay ilang taon na pong ginagawa ng DSWD ang programang ito,” she said.

(This has been done in years and is not intended [to occur during major events]… Maybe the reports are just coincidental with big events, but the truth there is that the DSWD has been implementing this program in years.)