CEBU CITY—Vice President Jejomar Binay chided the Department of Social Welfare and Development on Monday for skipping the worst-hit town of Ronda from its relief operations while distributing truckloads of relief to the neighboring towns.
Social Welfare officials admitted not having sent relief to Ronda, saying the provincial government should have done it first and that the agency would only come in when the provincial government had already used up its resources.
They said Ronda Mayor Mariano Blanco III should have written them a request for help and for relief.
Blanco has complained that a week after 14 people died in his town, not a single family food pack had been sent by Social Welfare to the survivors.
“That’s what I am saying,” said Binay whose food packs were the first to be received by the Ronda residents a week after typhoon Seniang hit Eastern Visayas.
“The DSWD is good at issuing press releases claiming they are quick in helping out the victims of calamities no matter their political affiliations. They make themselves look good at the expense of the survivors.”
Blanco said he could not believe that Social Welfare had to uphold a policy of waiting for the victims to beg for help during times of emergency.
“My town is reeling from massive devastation,” Blanco said.
“I have 14 people to bury and 18,500 constituents to check if they were somehow all right and the DSWD expected me to write them a letter-request when even our sheets of paper got wet by floodwaters.”
Blanco said when Social Welfare wanted to hold seminars on how to alleviate poverty and successfully held the seminars that they could report to the national headquarters, they were all present.
“Now that we need them the DSWD people are nowhere to be found,” Blanco said.
“What kind of welfare agency is the DSWD?”
Blanco is a member of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance of which Binay is chairman. Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III is a member of the ruling Liberal Party.
Blanco said he was not taking it against the neighboring towns to have received truckloads of relief, adding it was fortunate for them to have a dry pieces of paper to write their letter-requests.
Binay took up the cudgels for Blanco and said Social Welfare should no longer wait for the letters to initiate relief operations in Ronda.
He said a team from the Office of the Vice President will return to Ronda to bring more relief.
“I apologize to the survivors for not bringing enough relief goods. My team will come back to bring more,” Binay said.
