MANILA – Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman has defended her so-called “family” program from criticisms despite the huge expenses it incurred in bringing poor families for a vacation in various resorts in the Philippines.
Rep. Lito Atienza has lambasted Soliman for continuously misleading the public on the way the Department of Social Welfare and Development “swept under the rug” the street children and street dwellers of Manila to ensure they were off the road during the recent visit of Pope Francis to Manila.
“Hayagang nagsisinungaling si Secretary Soliman sa simula’t simula sa issue ng pagtago ng mga street families ng Maynila. Ang una ay sinabi nya na hindi totoo ang isyu na ito, ngunit nang mabisto, ito raw ay isang regular na programa ng DSWD,” said Atienza.
He was referring to the sudden disappearance of street children and the homeless during the five day pastoral visit of Pope Francis. Atienza said he considers this a big insult to the papal visit since the Pope traveled thousands of miles precisely to meet and comfort the poor.
During his interpellation of Rep. Emmy De Jesus’ privilege speech denouncing what she termed as “human rights violations” committed by the DSWD, Atienza said that instead of hiding poor families at a beach resort, they should be given long term livelihood opportunities considering the almost P70-billion Conditional Cash Transfer budget the DSWD has.
“I cannot imagine why the DSWD did such a thing. This is an insult to the dignity of these streetchildren and homeless people. Hindi dapat abusuhin ang kalagayan ng maralita kundi dapat ay tulungan silang makaahon sa kahirapan,” Atienza said.
Atienza said he would call for a congressional probe into this very serious matter. (Mindanao Examiner)
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