FISHERMEN in areas devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) are still reeling from the effects of the destruction wrought by the storm and badly need government assistance, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya (Pamalakaya) said.
Pamalakaya led a group of protesters at the gates of the House of Representatives at the Batasan Complex in Quezon City on Tuesday—in time for the budget hearing of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)—to express their indignation over the failure of the government to address the needs of the survivors, particularly shelter.
They demanded the immediate and unconditional release of emergency funds allocated for typhoon victims whose houses were totally or partially damaged, and scrap its policy that makes the funds release difficult to access and subject to political exploitation.
Salvador France, Pamalakaya vice chairman, said that almost two years after the typhoon struck, majority of the affected fishermen in the Visayas have yet to receive substantial financial assistance from
the government.
Yolanda, the strongest typhoon ever to made landfall in history, hit the country on November 8, 2013 and left a path of death and destruction in the Central Philippines. A total of 171 local governments in the Visayas, Bicol and Mimaropa (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan) were affected, with hundreds of thousands of houses having been totally or partially damaged.
France said that even victims of typhoons Seniang and Ruby, which hit the country earlier than Yolanda, have yet to receive financial assistance from the government and blamed what he described “onerous and highly questionable” memorandum circular issued by the DSWD.
According to France, DSWD Memorandum Circular 24 only qualifies families who are renting, and had availed the DSWD Disaster Family Access Card (Dafac); contractual government employees with no housing loans from the government and private groups; regular workers from public and the private sectors earning lower than P15,000 a month, provided that they have not received the same aid from other agencies; lone survivors who are issued Dafacs, families who have initiated self-repairs and those who live in safe place away from the government proclaimed danger-zone areas.
“We received reports from our members and allies that some barangay officials are demanding for cuts for the release of financial assistance. Fishermen are the most severely affected and, yet, they are the ones who are not getting any help from the government,” he said.
France said the government could help ease the suffering of survivors of the typhoon by releasing the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) directly to the victims, instead of coursing it through local governments and without the preconditions set by DSWD Memorandum Circular 24.
France said that the P30,000 financial assistance to survivors whose houses were totally damaged, and P10,000 for those whose houses were partially damaged, are not enough to rebuild their houses.
Members of Pamalakaya in the Visayas, he said, also complained that local government officials selectively release funds to their political allies or supporters, leaving behind those who need government help more to fend for themselves because they are not kakampi.
As a result, he said, typhoon survivors lose their interest of availing the fund. He accused the DSWD of deliberately delaying the distribution, forcing beneficiaries to deal with loan sharks to advance their ESA claim.
“The hardships being experienced by the typhoon victims have been exploited by unscrupulous local government officials in cahoots with loan sharks to make a 16 percent cut on what the beneficiaries will get or what the locals called kase-kase scheme.” France said.
Pamalakaya doubted that Social Welfare Secretary Dinky J. Soliman, who has set the deadline until September for the distribution of ESA, will be met.
“Soliman only wanted to fast track the distribution to cover up the track of irregularities surrounding the ESA fund. How can she do that if the many ESA beneficiaries are being stricken out on the list because of the DSWD’s Memo Circular 24,” France said.
The multibillion-peso fund for the ESA, France said, is prone to corruption and anomalies and as such should be audited.