MANILA, Philippines?She ordered the Palace thrown open to the common folk, and was annoyed at what she saw.

A long stretch of impoverished Filipinos peeking through the gates of the Kalayaan compound under the intense afternoon heat was the sight that greeted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a day after she issued her unprecedented order.

It was apparently the closest that her staff could get to the planned National Relief Operations Center on the Palace grounds to help victims of Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international codename: Ketsana).

The President beheld the scene when she arrived at Kalayaan Hall at around 1:30 p.m. from a Cabinet meeting in Camp Aguinaldo. Her face turning sour, she ordered the Palace guards to immediately let the people in.

Hermogenes Esperon, Ms Arroyo?s chief of staff, tried to downplay his boss? annoyance, saying: ?She just didn?t want to see the people lined up outside.?

About an hour later, the number of people expecting relief goods swelled to around 500. Many of them were women and kids dressed in tattered clothes and slippers.

An old man in a wheelchair fell in line, at the end of which volunteers distributed nothing more than hamburger buns.

Repacking center only

Esperon said there was an apparent miscommunication: Malacañang was not supposed to be an evacuation center, as was announced on Monday.

?This is a repacking center, meaning we will receive donations, repack them, then send them to evacuation centers where the flood victims are,? he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ?If they want to receive relief goods, they should go to the evacuation centers.?

But it was Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who announced that offices at the Kalayaan buildings could be used to temporarily house flood victims.

To avoid disappointing those who came, many of whom were from communities just outside Malacañang, volunteers handed out pieces of bread and soft drinks.

By 3:30 p.m., most of them were filing out of Kalayaan.

The purported miscommunication aside, the Palace people promised more assistance for families displaced by Ondoy.

Ms Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, and members of the Cabinet promised to donate their salary for two months to the victims. There are 23 active members of the Cabinet.

According to Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, the President earns at least P69,916 a month; the Vice President, P55,916; and Cabinet secretaries, P48,916.

Dismay

In a statement, the President expressed dismay over criticisms of the government?s purportedly slow and inadequate response to the havoc wrought by the storm.

?The disaster work we do is critical, but often other people have a wrong understanding,? she said, adding in Filipino:

?This early the criticisms are flying from those who like to criticize. It may be painful to hear, but we are still listening to them.

?If the complaints are coming from those who have suffered and have the right to complain, we are opening our hearts to their plight and listening to whatever lesson they may impart to help us perform our duties better in the future.?

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Palace relief operations center had distributed donation packs to 273,453 victims in Metro Manila.

Ms Arroyo also:

? Ordered an early release of the 13th month pay of government employees not spared by the floods.

? Appealed to car repair shops not to ?take advantage of the situation and give a good price rather than higher prices? to motorists whose vehicles had bogged down in the floodwaters.

Pork barrel

At the House of Representatives, Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga filed Resolution No. 1433 urging his 268 peers to shell out at least P1 million each from their pork barrel as their contribution to relief and rehabilitation efforts for the victims of Ondoy.

Each lawmaker gets P70 million as priority development assistance fund (PDAF) every year.

?Two days after the horror storm sent torrents of water through the nation?s capital and surrounding provinces, the government conceded it is unable to deal with the disaster on its own and needs urgent help,? Barzaga said.

Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said the lawmakers had to chip in because Ondoy was a ?once in a generation calamity? that could cripple the country?s capital for an extended period.

An-Waray party-list Rep. Florencio Noel said he believed that a number of his peers in unaffected regions were willing to contribute because many of their constituents were based in Metro Manila.

P20K each

But Speaker Prospero Nograles proposed that the representatives fork out only P20,000 each as their contribution to the relief efforts.

He also rejected a call to make the Batasang Pambansa complex an evacuation center, citing security risks and the fact that Congress was in the middle of budget deliberations.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, an economic adviser of the President, proposed a liquidity package that would give cash to flood victims in the National Capital Region and 27 provinces and speed up their return to a normal life.

Yearend bonus

?Once supply chains have been restored and survival needs have been provided, cash is the best form of social and economic relief after a disaster [because] victims know better their needs, beneficiaries would be more judicious in their procurement, and benefit is direct and immediate,? Salceda said in a statement.

In his own statement, Vice President De Castro proposed the immediate release of government workers? yearend bonus as additional form of emergency financial assistance to the flood victims.

?This will be a big help to our employees in the public sector, especially those affected by Ondoy,? he said in a statement.

?I requested the Cabinet to release the bonus at the soonest possible time ? to not wait for November anymore. I also appeal to our private-sector employers to do the same for their workers,? he added.

Pag-Ibig?s service centers

Government employees are scheduled to receive in November the second half of their yearend bonus, comprising their basic pay and cash gift of P5,000. They received the first half in May.

De Castro, chair of the Housing and Urban Development and Coordinating Center, earlier instructed the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) to prioritize the processing of calamity loan applications from affected members.

Pag-IBIG has established two service centers in Marikina City and Cainta, Rizal, to accept applications for calamity loans in addition to its existing branches.

To qualify, applicants must be residents of localities declared as calamity areas who have paid at least 24 monthly contributions, and are active members at the time of application. They must continue to remit their contributions during the term of the loan. With a report from Cynthia D. Balana