QUEZON CITY, Sep. 15 — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said the PHP 1.1 billion donation it received for the rehabilitation of Typhoon Yolanda-stricken regions was used as intended.
Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said P73 billion foreign aid was pledged, of which P45 billion were in cash and P28 billion were non-cash. However, the Philippines only received P17 billion, of which P1.202 billion were in cash and 1.269 billion in non-cash were given to the government.
“The remaining P14 billion went to non-government organizations and multilateral organizations, among others. The DSWD received P1.1 billion both in local and foreign currency,” Sec. Soliman said.
As of yesterday, DSWD has already disbursed eighty-four percent (84%) of the donations it has received. The amount went to transitional shelter program, cash for work, ready-to-eat food items and medicines, demurrage fees, civil registry documents, supplies for children, and administrative expenses, among others.
The remaining sixteen percent (16%) is already allocated based on a work and financial plan to include a supplementary feeding and tourism project.
“To promote transparency and accountability, the summary of cash donations for typhoon Yolanda is available in our website,” Sec. Soliman stated.
As of September 9, a total of 803,281 families from Palawan, Panay, Northern Cebu, and Samar Leyte municipalities have received their assistance out of the 966,341 target families. This is approximately eighty-three percent (83%) completed.
Of this, 339,692 families out of the 449,127 families with totally damaged houses have received P30,000 shelter assistance amounting to P10.19 billion. On the other hand, 463,589 families out of the 517,214 families with partially damaged houses have been provided their P10,000 shelter assistance totaling to P4.63 billion.
Sec. Soliman said if there are cases that went awry, these are isolated and only constitute a small portion as indicated by the number of beneficiaries who have received their assistance without any problem.
For example, out of the more or less 400,000 families who received the assistance in Panay region, DSWD only received 103 complaints with 42 already resolved.
The Secretary said the Department continues to uphold the principles of transparency and accountability. She urges the public to immediately report any irregularity that they know of to the nearest DSWD-Field Office.
“Efforts will be undertaken to improve service delivery to disaster victims, especially that the Aquino Administration has vowed to pour in more budget to implement rehabilitation programs, as indicated in the 2016 National Budget,” Sec. Soliman said.(DSWD)
