Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Beggars, drug addicts rounded up to spruce up Manila for ASEAN meetings (3:15 p.m)
MANILA -- Police began rounding up beggars, vagrants and drug addicts from the streets of the Philippine capital Wednesday to get them out of sight of Southeast Asian officials gathering for annual meetings.
"We just want to make sure that they are not along roads that ASEAN delegates will be passing through," said police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Roma Geronimo.
She said the drive to get beggars, street children and drug addicts off Manila's streets was standard operating procedure and that police have intensified the operation as part of a campaign to spruce up the capital for the foreign guests.
Those rounded up are turned over to social welfare authorities or are sent home if they have one, she added.
As of Wednesday morning, several areas in Manila's Intramuros tourist district were "free" of drug addicts and homeless families sleeping on the streets, local dzBB radio reported.
In suburban Pasay and Paranaque - along the route from the airport to the meetings' venue - authorities were considering suggestions to paint roofs of squatter shanties white, the report added.
Foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will start gathering over the weekend. They will also hold meetings with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, as well as Western countries, the United States and the European Union.
A 6,500-strong security contingent will be in place, Police Deputy Director-General Avelino Razon said Tuesday. (AP) |
