Top government officials denied on Thursday that street children in Metro Manila were rounded up and detained to prevent them from being seen by Pope Francis, who arrived on Thursday.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas III, who is on top of the security arrangements for the Pope visit, and Social and Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said the report, which appeared in the website of British tabloid Daily Mail was not true.
The Daily Mail wrote in its website that “street children as young as five are being caged in brutal detention centres alongside adult criminals in a cynical drive to smarten up the Philippines capital ahead of a visit by Pope Francis.
Hundreds of boys and girls have been rounded up from doorways and roadsides by police and officials and put behind bars in recent weeks to make the poverty-racked city more presentable when Pope Francis arrives tomorrow, a MailOnline investigation has found.”
The website said it also “gained a rare access to a detention centre by accompanying Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, 71, as he freed a boy aged around seven and took him to his Preda Foundation shelter for children 100 miles away in Subic Bay.
It quoted Cullen as he described the condition of the children that they rescued from detention centers.
“They have no basic rights. There is no education. There is no entertainment. There is no proper human development. There is nowhere to eat and they sleep on a concrete floor. There is no proper judicial process.
‘These kids are totally without protection. They have no legal representation. They are just put in jail and left to fend for themselves.’
Pope Francis famously washed the feet of inmates in a youth detention centre in Rome in 2013 but Father Shay, who has run a mission to help children in the Philippines for 40 years, said: ‘Sadly, there is no way the Pope will be visiting these detention centres in Manila.
‘They are a shame on the nation. Officials here would be horrified at the prospect of the Pope seeing children treated in this way,” Shay said.
The British tabloid also quoted extensively from an article written for the Manila Standard Today, which appeared in the first week of January, or a week after Pope’s arrival.
In that article, MST said Rosalinda Orobia, head of Social Welfare Department in Manila’s central Pasay district, admitted that her officials had for weeks been detaining street children in the areas the Pope will visit and had taken in children as young as five.
Orobia claimed that the operations to round up the street kids were aimed at stopping begging syndicates targeting the Pope rather than tidying up the city.
‘They (the syndicates) know the Pope cares about poor kids, and they will take advantage of that,’ she told the Manila Standard newspaper.
In an editorial, the MST slammed the official’s remarks, saying: ‘We should all be scandalized by the government’s artificial campaign to keep the streets free of poor children only for the duration of the papal visit.
‘There is no question that children should be kept off the streets, but a campaign to do so just for the duration of a dignitary’s visit helps nobody except the officials who want to put on a show and pretend all is well in our cities.’
But in his denial, Roxas said that the national police, which he heads, is police is not part of the issue and claimed that the report was “just like chasing a shadow,” implying that the story may had been manufactured.
“Huwag na po natin gawing fishing expedition ito… Hindi kabahagi ang pulis dito (on the report on caged street children). Para po tayong naghahabol ng anino niyan,” Roxas said on the eve of the pope’s visit.
Soliman, on the other hand, said that street children were “actually” encouraged to be part of the Papal activities.
She added that a total of 440 children, who were earlier turned over to DSWD head quarters, were part of the send off for Pope Francis on January 19.
Soliman said that the children have been rehearsing a song to present to the pontiff for several days.
Soliman’s claim was backed by Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda, who confirmed that the street children would indeed be a part of the send-off ceremony for the visiting pontiff.
Soliman had earlier been linked to a controversy when she admitted last year the there were P2.8-million worth of relief goods for Yolanda survivors that were spoiled.
Roxas, meanwhile, was criticized for telling Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez that the mayor should keep his hands off from the distribution of relief goods for Yolanda victims because he is “a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino,” referring to the political rivalry between the two families.
His statements, which was recorded in video, went viral, triggering hundreds of negative comments.
Father Shay, meanwhile, said he is praying Pope Francis will speak out on children’s rights during his five-day visit to the Philippines which ends on Sunday, perhaps pricking the conscience of officials in the devout country into taking more care of their unfortunate young.
Meanwhile, the only prospect of an escape from the hellish conditions behind bars for countless children will come when the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church – shielded from their suffering – flies back to Rome next Monday.