Manila vagrants given jobs

MANILA, Philippines—The National Parks Development Committee (NPDC), in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), has turned 200 street dwellers in the City of Manila into productive citizens by hiring them as sweepers, electricians, gardeners and janitors.

The hired hands between the ages of 18 and 59, who used to spend most of their time loitering in Rizal Park, will get a salary of P303 a day from the DSWD. Most of them will be deployed at Rizal and Paco Parks in Manila although some will be assigned at the Pook ni Maria Makiling forest park in Laguna province.

NPDC Executive Director Juliet Villegas said the project was in line with the DSWD’s campaign to dissuade the homeless from resorting to begging, which only “encourages the poor to be more indolent and irresponsible for themselves and for their families.”

As the NPDC and DSWD hope to make the project permanent, the workers will be assessed for potential regular employment after 736 working hours.—Jaymee T. Gamil