Due to APEC? Iloilo City government rounds up street kids, families

CEBU, Philippines – Iloilo City government officials admitted Tuesday they have been rounding up street children and families in the metropolis, allegedly to hide them from delegates and guests of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings.

However, Ben Palma Jr., chairman of the Task Force Internet, Online Service, Gaming Centers, Anti-Piracy and Pornography, denied that they have gathering the homeless and the beggars due to the APEC. “With our without APEC, we have been doing this,” he said.

Palma said his office, together with the City Social Welfare and Development Office, have brought the street children to the Crisis Intervention Center, as part of the implementation of curfew on minors, under City Ordinance 2011-676.

Under the measure, minors are not allowed to roam the streets, without their parents or guardians, between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Palma admitted though that their operation on street kids, street families, and mendicants were heightened since Saturday, during the opening of APEC.

The street children have been brought to their respective barangay where their parents were being questioned. In every district, the CSWDO also set up a holding area where the gathered street families were temporarily placed, after which the DSWD will then conduct a case study on them.

For out-of-town mendicants, they have been brought back to their place of origin, similar to what has been done to Badjaos and Atis, who have been frequenting the city streets in time for the Dinagyang festival and the Christmas season.

Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog underscored that mendicancy is against the law. “With or without APEC, the city government has been attending to this matter. A fast growing economy, such as in Iloilo City, attracts a lot of mendicants, especially the Badjaos,” he said.

“When we see the Badjaos, we gather all of them and the CSWDO sent them back to their places,” said the mayor.

Mabilog also expressed concerns on the growing number of persons with mental abilities, who are now roaming the city streets. “We also try to gather them and put them at our mentally-ill health center although we have a problem on how sustain this,” he said.

Funding has been a big problem because of the growing number of persons the city personnel has to attend to. “But still we recognized our obligation to take care of them,” Mabilog assured the public.