Clergymen hit DSWD ‘window dressing’

‘SHARED GUILT’ OF CHURCH, GOV’T. It’s bedtime on the pavement for a homeless child in Binondo, Manila. JILSON SECKLER TIU

Church officials on Saturday added to the wave of criticism hurled at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for taking hundreds of homeless families off the streets of Manila to a resort outside the capital during the recent visit of Pope Francis, saying the move was reminiscent of the urban “window dressing” done during the Marcos dictatorship.

“With due respect to the DSWD and Secretary Dinky Soliman, who is a good ally in the civil society, I think the timing was not prudent. We should have instead brought the street kids in front of Pope Francis,” said Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, the social action arm of the Archdiocese of Manila.

“It was like during the Marcosian era when the window dressing of Metro Manila was done to make it look good for visitors,” Pascual said in a text message to reporters.

Pascual made the remark after Soliman confirmed earlier media reports that street children and beggars were carted off to a plush resort in Batangas province from Jan. 14 to 19. The Pope was in the country from Jan. 15 to 19.

Soliman, however, maintained that the six-day sojourn involving 490 people was not meant to “hide poverty” from the Pope or the international media.

She insisted it was for an orientation activity on the government’s poverty alleviation measures, particularly the conditional cash transfer program where beneficiaries are given health, education and housing stipends. “Part of the orientation (was) to familiarize them with a room that has a door and toilets,” Soliman said.

Pascual maintained that fighting poverty is “everybody’s concern” and that it also involves the Church leadership. “Churchmen are also responsible for our deplorable poverty situation and it’s good to face the truth together with the government and other sectors in front of the Holy Father,” the priest said.

“The Church and the government have to face shared guilt that we have street children in a predominantly Christian country like the Philippines. As executive director of Caritas Manila, I must say that I’m equally responsible in the suffering condition of street kids in Metro Manila,” said Pascual.

Another vocal Church figure, Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, said the Batangas “outing” was “definitely a big slap on the credibility of the DSWD.”

“When I heard about this, at once I felt that something was wrong,” Cruz said. “The Pope came here for the poor, the needy. He came to see how miserable and how poor we are. That’s why the theme of his visit was mercy and compassion, isn’t it?”

“But all of a sudden, they would like to hide the poor people and bring them somewhere. It was very clear that they did this in order to clear the streets of these so-called street beggars, (shanty) dwellers, etc.,” the retired prelate added.

“Lies were also being said in order to justify what they did. It’s also a waste of public funds (that were spent) only for the purpose of pretending that everything was OK,” Cruz added.