MMDA rounds up airport vagrants

MANILA, Philippines—The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has started to round up vagrants near the Manila international airport.

The MMDA reported Thursday the “rescue” of 45 street dwellers in a “reach-out operation” on Tuesday along the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Road in Pasay City.

“We do not want them roaming the streets and posing a danger to themselves and motorists passing the area. It is for their own safety that they be brought to a safe place where they will be taken care of,” MMDA chair Francis Tolentino said in a statement on Thursday.

MMDA Social Services Office head Rolando Macalinao added that the agency has received complaints the “Batang Hamog” (street children) would pester, even pick the pockets of motorists and pedestrians.

Of the 45 vagrants, with ages ranging from 3 to 50, six were minors.

The vagrants have been turned over to the Jose Fabella Center in Mandaluyong City, a shelter run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.