Rights group hits roundup of street dwellers

MANILA, Philippines - The government was accused yesterday of rounding up hundreds of homeless people, including 140 children, and detaining them for the duration of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded that the government release them from alleged arbitrary detention.

Authorities have violated the rights of hundreds of Metro Manila residents to put a “cynical veneer of cleanliness” for APEC delegates, according to HRW deputy Asia director Phelim Kine.

“The removal and detention of homeless and impoverished residents from where they live and work without due process is a violation of their basic human rights,” he said.

Children were taken to the city of Manila-run Boys’ Town in Marikina and others to Jose Fabella Center, a facility for the homeless that the national government operates in Mandaluyong, he said.

Abusing the homeless must not be part of the price tag for the government to host high-profile international events, Kine said.

“APEC delegates should make it clear to their Philippine hosts that abusive clearing operations against Manila’s most vulnerable residents only tarnish the reputations of the Philippines and APEC,” he said.

“Since Nov. 9, local authorities have rounded up several hundred adults and children from streets and informal settlements in Manila and surrounding municipalities of Metro Manila, and detained them without charge, Kine said.

Many of the adults operating food carts or selling scavenged items were told that they would be able to return to the streets and resume their work after the summit, he added.

Police, barangay officials and social workers appear on the streets where people are living and examine their tents and hovels, witnesses told HRW.

HRW was able to interview a certain “Dario,” a scavenger arrested on a street near Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

DSWD personnel who detained him on Nov. 11 were “brutal,” he said.

“They were merciless,” he said.

“They took our things or did not allow some of us to bring our belongings.” He and his wife have been held in custody at the Jose Fabella Center, where they spoke to HRW.

DSWD director for Metro Manila Alicia Bonoan told HRW that the “clearing operations” were part of a government policy of “rescuing” and “reaching out” to the homeless and the poor, particularly children.

They were conducted in tandem with a modified cash transfer program launched in 2011 that provides up to P4,000 in monthly rental support payments for up to six months to 4,408 low-income families in Metro Manila, she added.

Bonoan denied any link between the operations and the APEC summit.

However, accounts of people detained, their relatives and social workers from nongovernmental groups suggest otherwise.

HRW was also able to talk to a 52-year-old vendor in Ermita, Manila   identified only as Cora, who was detained on Nov. 11. – With Mayen Jaymalin, Rhodina Villanueva, Robertzon Ramirez