Probe into children's centre run by Estrada
Top Philippines officials said yesterday that they had launched investigations into a Manila children's centre overseen by a former president after months of complaints about the "prison-like" conditions.
Top Philippines officials said yesterday that they had launched investigations into a Manila children's centre overseen by a former president after months of complaints about the "prison-like" conditions.
There has been a growing outcry over conditions at the government-run facility where vagrant children and some homeless adults are held.
Charity groups allege a litany of maltreatment including violence, sexual abuse, malnutrition and torture.
Newspapers have in recent days carried photographs of an emaciated child resident.
Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, now the mayor of Manila, who is in charge of the Manila Reception and Action Centre, said he had ordered an investigation into the facility, which is located near the city hall.
But Estrada, deposed as president amid a corruption scandal in 2001, also took a defiant stance, saying "they are just trying to blow it [the issue] up".
The charity group Bahay Tuluyan (House of Refuge) which first raised the problems at the centre in 2009, said authorities had consistently failed to act.
"They only responded now that it is in the open," said Lily Flordelis, executive director of the charity.
She said those running the facility had admitted it could accommodate only 50 people, but often held 250. Children were locked in at night with only a pail to urinate in, she said.
Manila officials blamed the harsh conditions on lack of money. But many children also complained of beatings and abuse by other children or staff.
