Homeless Children Caged in Philippines for Security of Pope

[starshine]

I do not know if you guys saw the article on the Daily Mail. It is said to be measures taken to protect Pope Francis for his upcoming visit -- probably to maintain the face of a "cleaner" and "wealthier" Manilla.

This has been going on for weeks, and these kids have no rights -- no real warrant justifying arrest, no education, no entertainment. Kids as young as five years old are taken and some are sexually abused.

Excerpt:

We gained rare access to a detention centre by accompanying Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, 71, as he freed a boy aged around seven and took him to his Preda Foundation shelter for children 100 miles away in Subic Bay.

Mak-Mak, whose legs and body were riddled with scabies, was picked up three weeks ago and spent Christmas and the New Year in a concrete pen at the centre hidden away in the slums of Manila's Paranaque district which –with grotesque irony – is named House of Hope.

There, guiltless children are kept behind bars, made to go to the toilet in buckets and fed leftovers which they eat from the floor. There is no schooling or entertainment for the youngsters who are held sometimes for months before being freed.

Adult convicts are kept in a pen next to separate compounds holding boys and girls and freely pass between the pens at certain times of the day, inmates and regular visitors to the centre told us, while officials either ignore or fail to spot abuse and attacks.

This is not the way to fix the problem of homeless children crowding the streets, I'm sure we agree.

Full link: Homeless children CAGED in Manila to keep the streets clean for Pope Francis Philippines visit | Daily Mail Online

In poignant scenes, Mak-Mak – an abandoned child with no ID – at first seen frightened but then beamed with delight as charity workers told him he was being taken from his caged pen to children's home in the countryside. 'Are there toys there?' was his first question.


Read more: Homeless children CAGED in Manila to keep the streets clean for Pope Francis Philippines visit | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[musicmonster]

I do not know if you guys saw the article on the Daily Mail. It is said to be measures taken to protect Pope Francis for his upcoming visit -- probably to maintain the face of a "cleaner" and "wealthier" Manilla.

This has been going on for weeks, and these kids have no rights -- no real warrant justifying arrest, no education, no entertainment. Kids as young as five years old are taken and some are sexually abused.

Excerpt:


This is not the way to fix the problem of homeless children crowding the streets, I'm sure we agree.

Full link: Homeless children CAGED in Manila to keep the streets clean for Pope Francis Philippines visit | Daily Mail Online

In poignant scenes, Mak-Mak – an abandoned child with no ID – at first seen frightened but then beamed with delight as charity workers told him he was being taken from his caged pen to children's home in the countryside. 'Are there toys there?' was his first question.


Read more: Homeless children CAGED in Manila to keep the streets clean for Pope Francis Philippines visit | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

I just read this too from the Daily Mail UK and I had to say it's pretty sick and if I may use the word "vile." These are children! They have massive churches in their country yet they can't house these kids in a proper place? Worst, when they had to cage them like that and call them a "Shame to the country?" Seriously, appalling.

 

[stryker]

It is astounding the things a people will do and the others they will step on out of "respect" for someone who has status, celebrity or otherwise. If the pope were made aware of this, I would hope it would move him to tears.

How sad for Father Cullen that he can't save them all. I wonder how it is determined which ones he and others like him (hoping there are some) can take out of there.

 

[missbishi]

What an awful story. I'm sure Pope Francis himself would agree. Why can't the country make some sort of provision for these children, where they get meals, education and a roof over their heads?

 

[musicmonster]

What an awful story. I'm sure Pope Francis himself would agree. Why can't the country make some sort of provision for these children, where they get meals, education and a roof over their heads?

It is aggravating. They have huge church buildings though. I'm not an atheist by the way. I believe in God. But I also believe that He wants things in order. People in that country should start addressing this issue.

 

[Muthoni]

Some people have an empty place where the heart should be. How can someone lock a street kid in a concrete pen just to impress the pope? Wonders never cease to happen! Instead of locking these kids, they should have set up a shelter for them with a decent bed and three square meals. Furthermore they should have invited the pope to pray for these kids so that they can find people to adopt them.

 

[globulon]

What a ridiculous action. I'm sure the Pope himself would condemn it if he were aware of it. It is those very children that the church should be helping.

 

[kittyworker]

The Daily Mail is a tabloid that is marketed to barely literate lower class. You really need to take anything that appears in it with a grain of salt. If this were actually true I suspect we would have seen it from some other news outlet by now.

 

[littlexchelsea]

This is honestly so sad to me. if I were the Pope I would never come to that country again and straight up tell the Filipinos that what they're doing is wrong. I believe that children possess no harm to the Pope too.

 

[joshua minaya]

What an awful story. I'm sure Pope Francis himself would agree. Why can't the country make some sort of provision for these children, where they get meals, education and a roof over their heads?

You are certainly right i wonder why the government can not plan for the well being of those Children.

 

[tournique]

Another side of the religion that not many consider when looking at the Church.

 

[vegito12]

Some people view others who are not wealthy or well off, a different human and may want to impress the pope and hide the homeless children from the pope thinking they can show him the good things. Taking care of the children who are not able to survive on streets or homeless should be taken care of by the government and educated as well. The government should fix these issues, not try and hide them from the people thinking they will notice these issues.

 

[xTinx]

Yes, this is the sad reality here in my country. We unfortunately have a bunch of rotten people working for the government. Most of them were hired through the backdoor so it's no wonder most of them were callous enough to treat street children in this awful manner. I wonder why they were placed in "centers" that look no different from ordinary prison cells. There are several decent shelters all over Manila. They could have been sent there instead. My guess is that they did the hiding at the last minute so there was no time to inform the right shelters. The people responsible for the task of "hiding" those children are solely to blame. I hope they'll get their just desserts in no time.

 

[tournique]

That sounds scary, xTinx. Do you think the ones that took such actions will be punished?

 

[DancingLady]

That is terrible. If the pope knew about that he would be appalled. I am not catholic but I know this pope lives the people and wants them to be cared for. If there are so many homeless children they need to build orphanages for them so they can have a home and people to take care if them.