PHILIPPINES
Asia One
Raul DancelThe Straits TimesTuesday, Feb 03, 2015
At a busy corner of Roxas Boulevard arcing Manila Bay, Dennis, only three years old but spunky, dashes for a jeepney – a repurposed passenger jeep – as it waits for the light to turn green.
He dives into the open rear of the vehicle on all fours. With a dirty rag in his hand, he wipes the feet of the passengers, then stands up and starts begging for money. Sometimes, he gets a coin.
Sometimes, just a pat on the head. At other times, it may be a scolding. But most of the time, he is ignored.
He jumps off the jeepney just before the traffic light turns green, and then waits for it to turn red again.
A few paces away, his six-year-old sister Lyka, in clothes two sizes too big, is carrying their year-old brother. She taps on car windows, also asking for money. …
The Pope’s recent visit here has brought a renewed interest in the street children.
In one of the most moving images of that visit, 12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar broke down before she could finish narrating her hard life and how she had seen other children use drugs and forced to work as prostitutes. “Why does God let bad things happen to children?” she asked the Pope, who had no answer, just a rosary and a grandfatherly embrace.
Poverty continues to drive the poorest in the countryside to move to urban centres, creating even more homeless families, says Childhope’s president Teresita Silva, who has been a social worker for more than four decades.
The population has also been exploding, from 85 million in 2006 to more than 100 million last year, breeding one generation of street children after another.
The Pope himself, while reiterating the Church’s opposition to contraceptives during his Philippine visit, has taken issue with Catholics “breeding like rabbits”.
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