DSWD denies ordering street dwellers to hide during ASEAN Summit

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Wednesday denied ordering street dwellers to "hide" during the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings.

"For the record, DSWD did not and will never order 'street dwellers' to hide," DSWD's officer-in-charge Undersecretary Emmanuel Leyco told GMA News Online in a text message.

"DSWD's programs for street dwellers may be inadequate to cover everybody but we will never order them to hide. Instead, we will continue to find ways to enhance our programs," he added.

Leyco made the denial after some street dwellers in Manila claimed they were told to "hide" during the ASEAN Summit if they did not want to be taken away by social workers.

Last month, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) spokesperson Celine Pialago said that "rescuing" street children was part of their preparation for the ASEAN Summit.

Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr., director general for operations of the ASEAN 2017 National Organizing Council, earlier said that taking homeless people off the streets for the ASEAN Summit could also be viewed as a security measure.

In 2015, the DSWD was criticized for allegedly "hiding" homeless families in a resort in Batangas one day before Pope Francis arrived in the country for a papal visit.

Then-DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman denied the allegation, saying that the agency has been helping street dwellers well before the said event. —KBK, GMA News