By: Jaimie Rose Aberia
A city official clarified yesterday that the recent rescue operation for dozens of street dwellers and vendors along Roxas Boulevard was not part of the preparations for the upcoming ASEAN Summit this month.
Manila Department of Social Welfare (MDSW)-City Rescue team leader Lindsay Javier said the joint city hall-MMDA operation netted a total of 48 street dwellers and 10 ambulant vendors on push carts and pedicabs.
Two kuliglig (motorized pedicabs) and six pedicabs that vendors used as their makeshift homes were confiscated. Three bicycles were also seized from a group of “solvent boys,” Javier added.
The rescue units started the “reach out and clearing” operation from the city hall, sweeping the stretch of Kalaw Avenue up to US Embassy and Baywalk in Roxas Boulevard, all the way to Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) up to the corner of Vito Cruz, and back to City Hall through Taft Avenue.
“This is a massive clearing and rescue operation targeting not only vagrants but also mobile vendors who sleep on the street in their carts or pedicabs,” MDSW chief Nanet Tanyag said.
Of the 48 street dwellers, 29 were turned over to the city-run Manila Boystown Complex. The 19 adults also underwent background check by the police. All of them have no previous or pending criminal records.
At the facility, she said the street people are given decent shelters, clothes, foods, medicines, and proper healthcare. The adults, meanwhile, undergo development activities such as skills and livelihood trainings and basic business management courses.
Upon their release, the adults may also be referred to the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) for job referrals, Tanyag added.
The MDSW’s clearing operation for street dwellers has resulted in the rescue of more than 4,000 individuals since February this year, according to Tanyag.