DSWD Hoards Foreign Aid Inside Aquino Stadium

Image courtesy of www.tribune.net,ph

Source: www.tribune.net.ph

UN, UK START PROBE ON DIVERSION OF RELIEF GOODS

The United Nations said yesterday it would launch an investigation into foreign relief goods not reaching their intended destinations in the Visayas region devastated by typhoon Yolanda. It may start at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Malate, Manila where packages of relief goods are stacked several feet high almost filling the entire basketball court-size arena and which the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) had declared off limits to media.

The United Nations and the United Kingdom are now investigating reports that aid has yet to reach remote parts of the Philippines a month after a devastating typhoon.

The Tribune, acting on a tip that the foreign relief packages are being hoarded inside the arena, sent its photographer to take photos of the stored relief goods. The photographer who managed to enter the stadium was accosted by DSWD staff barring her to do her job of taking news photos and was told that the DSWD does not allow photographs of the relief items since “DSWD has been getting bad press lately about relief distribution.” The Tribune photographer tried to reason with the DSWD staff that it was her job to take pictures since it was her assignment but the DSWD personnel adamantly turned her away.

Nonetheless, The Tribune news photographer said that what she saw were sacks and cartons of foreign aid being guarded by two female personnel wearing T-shirts with DSWD printed on them and four young assistants inside the stadium guarding the relief goods from the stands.

The Ninoy Aquino Stadium is one of indoor sporting arenas in the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, the other being the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. The difference between the two is that the Ninoy Aquino Stadium has airconditioning being the more modern between the two.

The source who tipped off the Tribune on the aid being hoarded inside the stadium was wondering about the DSWD’s intention in keeping all purely foreign donations being kept in Manila when the disaster areas are all in the Visayas.

Observations from the field also indicated that most of the relief items distributed to the survivors of the widespread disaster were without exception local products even if foreign donations kept flowing into the disaster-hit regions.

The DSWD had earlier required all donations to be repacked before these are distributed to the typhoon-hit areas.

According to the government’s Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (Faith) which supposedly gives an updated count of the foreign assistance that flowed to victims of typhoon Yolanda a total of P21.2 billion in aid has been committed thus far broken down into P3.73 billion in cash and P17.5 billion in relief goods.

Thus far, the government acknowledged receiving P531 million as cash aid.

London publication Daily Mail said in a recent article called “Philippines aid scandal: Food flown in from Britain ends up in shops hundreds of miles from typhoon” said relief goods from the United Kingdom had turned up “on shelves of shops in the capital Manila; equipment bought with UK donations have been locked up in warehouses; and rice and other food is being stockpiled and not given to needy.”

It added that “shelter equipment purchased using British donations has been locked up in government warehouses and stockpiled alongside rice and other food intended for victims of last month’s catastrophe.”
The report said that the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) – an umbrella group representing 14 UK charities – expressed concern about evidence that suggests not all the 60-million UK pounds worth of aid given by Britain is reaching those most in need.

“Alarming evidence of the thefts has been provided by expat Keb Darge, 56, who says he faces death threats for stopping local officials stealing aid in Eastern Samar, one of the worst-hit areas. Darge, a disc jockey originally from Scotland, said: ‘The aid isn’t getting through to where it’s needed. I’ve seen the deliveries arrive and I’ve seen them disappear,” according to the newspaper.

It said that only a tiny percentage of the aid is getting through. The situation isn’t going to improve unless there’s an investigation. Someone needs to go and find out exactly what is happening. It is British aid coming in. Why give it to untrustworthy officials to steal? It is ludicrous.’

Darge supposedly photographed supplies being locked up rather than distributed in Eastern Samar, where he used to live with his Filipino wife and their nine-year-old daughter. 

“Now he has gone into hiding in Manila, fearing reprisals after receiving threats from the corrupt officials he has been trying to expose.

There are also concerns that supplies are simply being wasted. Mr Darge described finding 800 beef-burgers – apparently flown in from the US aircraft carrier George Washington were dumped by the roadside.

Valerie Amos, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said she had expected that aid had been delivered by helicopter to survivors in even the most remote outlying islands following the Nov. 8 disaster.

“Although we’ve got significant aid now coming in to the major centers, we still have a little bit of a worry that in a couple of the smaller islands that there may be needs there that we haven’t managed to meet yet,” she said.

“I’m still hearing worrying reports in the media — indeed I heard one this morning — where people said they hadn’t received any aid as yet, and we’re looking into that,” she said.

Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) and its tsunami-like storm surge plowed through Tacloban and other coastal areas, leaving more than 5,700 dead and more than 1,700 missing throughout the region. About 4 million people were displaced.

The United Kingdom government said it is working closely with the Philippine government and international aid agencies to check on reports that needed humanitarian aid is being diverted, the British Embassy in Manila said.

The British Embassy in Manila issued the statement following reports of missing relief goods from international donors that have generated rage and concern over social media recently, its regional office here said on Monday.

“We have no evidence of British aid being used for anything other than the relief effort, which is helping hundreds of thousands of Filipinos rebuild their lives,” the British Embassy said in a statement on its website.

DSWD officer-in-charge for Eastern Visayas Nestor Ramos said they will seek clarification from their workers on the ground to address this concern.

“Usually, when there are donations from the international organizations, we just make an inventory of it by box, but we are not opening that box. We immediately dispatch them to the different municipalities. We have a list of distribution plan as to who will be given priority. We do not repack (these relief goods) in our offices,” Ramos explained.

Ramos also encouraged members of media to visit their relief hubs to see for themselves whether the DSWD has been indeed keeping these goods inside cadaver bags just to hide them from the public.

He also addressed complaints raised by some volunteers who were displeased with DSWD’s “rotational policy” in line with its food-for-work program. He said rotating the volunteers was necessary so they could give equal opportunity to everyone. 

Fielding questions from media, DSWD officer-in-charge for Eastern Visayas Nestor Ramos said they have not yet received information regarding the matter but they will seek clarification from their workers on the ground to address this concern.

“The reality on the ground is there are NGOs (non-government organizations) directly distributing relief goods to LGUs (local government units)… (In) every municipality, we have already deployed (teams) to assess whether commodities are being received by our people in the villages,” Ramos said.

Ramos said they will investigate the Daily Mail report, as well as the alleged hoarding of imported relief goods from international organizations by corrupt local officials to be swapped with local ones hidden inside cadaver bags.

Ramos also encouraged members of the media to visit their relief hubs to see for themselves whether the DSWD was indeed keeping these goods inside cadaver bags just to hide them from the public. If so, why was the Tribune photographer barred by the DSWD from taking pictures of the stored relief goods?