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The Philippines government came under fire on Friday after admitting that hundreds of homeless people were taken off Manila’s streets and put into luxury accommodation during Pope Francis’s recent visit, when he preached compassion for the poor, the Guardian reported.

Members of parliament demanded an explanation after the social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman revealed 490 beggars and homeless people were taken to air-conditioned log cabins at a resort near Manila for the visit on 15-19 January.

“The pope would have wanted to see the Philippines, warts and all. Let us not pretend that we are a first-world country,” house of representatives member Terry Ridon, who is initiating a congressional inquiry, said.

Soliman said the street people, many of whom live in shanties and hammocks tied to palm trees along the Manila Bay seafront, were removed from the capital’s Roxas Boulevard before the visit.

A record crowd of 6 million flooded the bayside road on Sunday to hear Pope Francis celebrate mass in a nearby park, the highlight of his tour of the Catholic outpost where he preached “mercy and compassion” for the poor.

But the homeless were instead taken to plush accommodation at a hilltop resort south of Manila during the trip, before being deposited back on the streets hours after the pontiff’s departure on Monday.

Renato Reyes, secretary general of the leftwing group Bayan, criticised the decision, saying the government was “whitewashing poverty.”

But Soliman said the homeless would have been “vulnerable to syndicates and discriminated [against] a lot” had they stayed in the area.

“You cannot hide poverty. When the pope landed, the first thing he saw was the shanties by the river,” she said.