The Metro Manila Development Authority has teamed up with the city government of Manila and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to rescue children, vagrants, dwellers and mendicants from the streets of the metropolis.
In a recent operation, the MMDA rescued 41 street dwellers, including eight minors, along Lawton, Padre Burgos, Vicente Cruz, Mabini, T.M. Kalaw, Pedro Gil, San Andres Bukid, Leon Guinto, Remedios Circle, Malate, Sinagoga and Roxas Boulevard.
The street dwellers were sent to the Reception and Action Center in the City of Manila. The simultaneous operations were undertaken also in coordination with the Philippine National Police.
Local government officials earlier asked the Metro Manila Council, the MMDA’s policy-making body, to discuss with the national government a lasting solution to the worsening street-dwelling problem in the National Capital Region.
Government records showed that there are more than 1,500 street families in the metropolis.
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada is considering putting up a housing facility for street dwellers. He said the city government is presently looking for available land where this planned village for street dwellers will be put up.
“They can’t stay in temporary government shelters forever. They should have a place of their own where they can start their lives again,” the mayor said.
Arnold Pangan, officer-in-charge of the Manila Social Welfare Department (MSWD), said the National Housing Authority agreed to help in constructing the shelters. He added the project is being handled by MSWD, Urban Settlement Office and City Planning Office.
Through the help of various non-government organizations, Pangan said at least 10 homeless families have already been given their own houses and s in Nueva Ecija, with 20 to 30 more to follow.
The MSWD, he said, has been continuously rounding up street dwellers in the city, including ambulant vendors who have no permanent place to stay, in compliance with Estrada’s “zero street dwellers” campaign.
However, unlike the previous years, Pangan said they have been rescuing fewer street dwellers nowadays, from an average of 100 a day to only 20 because of their relentless operations. He said most of them were not even from the city.
All the rescued street dwellers are fed, bathed, and subjected to medical checkup before being turned over to the city-owned Manila Boystown Complex in Marikina City, according to Pangan.