Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration has been accused of trying to conceal Manila’s urban poverty by clearing street vendors and homeless people along key routes ahead of next week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.
Antonio Tinio, deputy minority floor leader of the House of Representatives representing the ACT Teachers Party List, claimed on Monday that authorities had launched operations to displace poor communities across the capital to present a “sanitised” version of the city, The Manila Times reported.
Tinio said it mirrored the controversial beautification campaigns orchestrated five decades ago by the president’s parents, Ferdinand Marcos Snr and former first lady Imelda Marcos.