EDITORIAL - Out of sight

Wherever he went throughout his visit here, the surest way to catch the attention of Pope Francis was the sight of children. He hugged and carried them, waved at them. He stopped his motorcade to kiss children. He dropped in on an orphanage unannounced to offer hope to its wards.

He would have found joy in spending time with the homeless children of Manila. The children, ubiquitous in the city as they beg for alms, unfortunately missed possibly the only chance in their life to receive papal blessings. Social welfare personnel spirited them away, considering the five-day papal visit a good time to introduce the homeless to dwellings with doors and sanitation facilities.

Initial reports about the hush-hush operation said the children were kept in cage-like facilities – a story heatedly denied by authorities. As reports of street children being rounded up for the papal visit refused to go away, however, authorities gradually and reluctantly admitted that, yes, there was some truth to the reports.

Yesterday, social welfare officials finally admitted that about 500 street children were billeted in a Batangas resort with a swimming pool and other recreational facilities. The Chateau Royale in Nasugbu surely provided much better accommodations than the polluted streets of Manila, especially when an off-season storm brought rains and cold winds.

Social welfare officials claimed the 500 children and their families were being initiated into the conditional cash transfer program. As of yesterday, however, the children were back in the streets, with no solid indication that they faced long-term improvement in their circumstances.

The timing of the children’s suddenly improved circumstances smacked too much of an operation to keep street dwellers out of sight during the pope’s visit – a tack more associated with the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos than the democratic, daang matuwid administration of President Aquino.

Certainly, children must be kept off the streets – permanently, and not just for a visiting dignitary. This controversy should lead to a better program to provide safety nets for the extremely poor.