SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is annoyed by the delay in the kickoff of the “relief caravan.”
The President flew home on Sunday night from the two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Thailand, and was apparently disappointed to see the long line of trucks loaded with relief goods still parked outside Malacańang.
“We should have the caravan. Depending now what the weather forecast is, or if the weather is clear ... we should have the caravan already,” Ms Arroyo said testily at the Cabinet meeting held Tuesday at the house of Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales in Barangay Dolores.
“If it was stopped at that time, it should not have stayed there with all these goods waiting. They should have been told that the caravan is off,” she said.
The government was to embark on a relief caravan for the thousands of calamity victims in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Administrative Region and Central Luzon starting on Oct. 19. But it was put off indefinitely because of the then approaching Typhoon “Ramil” (international codename: Lupit).
The boxes of food packs and clothing were to be unloaded at the headquarters of local disaster coordinating councils for eventual distribution to residents displaced by flooding and landslides.
Earlier in the Cabinet meeting, Prisco Nilo, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, conducted a briefing on the tropical depression over the Pacific Ocean that is expected to swirl into the Philippine area of responsibility late this week.
Nilo said the weather disturbance might hit land on Saturday or Sunday and was threatening the same parts of Luzon that were battered by strong typhoons this month.
Just lying there
Ms Arroyo wondered why nobody informed Malacańang of the postponement of the caravan.
“It was postponed. Then those assets should have been available for other things other than lying there,” she said.
Secretary Hermogenes Esperon of the Presidential Management Staff explained that a meeting had been scheduled to discuss the kickoff of the caravan, but was deferred due to the coming storm.
In response to the President’s query, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said there was an ample supply of goods in northern Luzon, and that Laguna was more in need of the relief items.
This prompted Ms Arroyo to say that the caravan should be diverted to other places: “Why don’t we have a caravan in southern Luzon instead? So preposition everything. Let’s have a caravan to Central and southern Luzon. Everything is loaded. We should do it tomorrow (Wednesday).”
Lorelei Fajardo, Ms Arroyo’s deputy spokesperson, said relief efforts would now be focused on southern Luzon.
She also said local officials had been directed to conduct early evacuations of residents of low-lying areas.
Victims ultimate losers
As it is, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has come under fire over a blogger’s claim that it was hoarding millions of pesos worth of foreign donations to calamity victims.
Cabral had earlier explained that the goods were released based on requests from local government units.
In an interview Tuesday, Cabral said the allegation of the blogger, Ella Rose, would ultimately hurt the typhoon victims.
“Accusations, no matter how unfounded, are bound to affect donors. The ultimate losers are the victims,” she said.
But she said that while DSWD employees were “very unhappy at being vilified without basis,” they were still “determined to continuing doing their duty as public servants.”
She added that repacking and distribution of relief goods had been unhampered by the controversy.
In an earlier interview, Cabral said some 34,000 families displaced by Storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” remained in evacuation centers.
Blogger ‘maligned’
In a blog entry last week, Ella Rose, who claims to have worked as a volunteer in a DSWD warehouse, denounced the purported slow distribution of relief goods.
Cabral vehemently denied the allegation in a 781-word reply posted on the DSWD website.
In her latest entry, Ella Rose lamented that she was now being “maligned as a person” because of what she had written.
“I am just a blogger who wanted to know what’s going on. I did not accuse anyone of hoarding. There were never any allegations of pilferage,” she said.
Cabral interpreted the latest entry as a form of “recantation.”
“She is now claiming she never accused us of hoarding or pilferage. That is another lie, of course, but at least she has gone against herself and that is documented. But the harm has been done,” Cabral said.
‘Special victims’
In her original post, the blogger said: “The relief goods are not moving. By the way things look, they are not going anywhere.”
She uploaded photos of the donated goods, including branded camp beds, which she said were not part of what the DSWD was packing for the victims.
She asked if these were for “special victims.”
The blogger also wrote this caption for another photo: “Relief goods na ayaw yata ibigay sa mga nasalanta. Halatang-halata (Relief goods that they apparently don’t want to give to the victims. It’s pretty obvious).”
Cabral maintained that the DSWD was very transparent in accounting the donations it had received.
The accounting is updated on its website. It said that aside from P60 million worth of donations in kind, the government had also received more than P103 million and $212,508 in cash.
Spanish ‘carińo’
And more donations are coming in from Spain and Germany.
The Philippine Embassy in Spain said the Spanish government had contributed about 3.575 million euros in cash and supplies to the ongoing relief efforts for the typhoon victims.
Ambassador Ana Ines de Sequera-Ugarte said the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development had contributed 2.5 million euros in cash (about P175 million) and loaded two cargo planes containing one million euros worth of supplies.
The supplies include two water purification plants, food, blankets, toiletries and kitchen kits, water containers and tents.
Ugarte said the embassy continued to receive calls from people asking where to send their donations.
“The concern and expression of sadness for the victims of the typhoons that I have received were beyond belief. The Spanish have a sincere ‘carińo’ for our country and people that is indescribable,” she said in a statement.
More donations
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Germany had committed a million euros (about P70 million) for humanitarian efforts to support victims of conflict in Mindanao.
In a statement, the DFA quoted German Ambassador Christian Ludwig Weber-Lortsch as saying that his government announced on Oct. 21 that it would make the donation to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Philippines.
The donation is to be used to support those seeking shelter in the camps for internally displaced persons and those who are sick or wounded as a result of the conflicts occurring in Mindanao.
The money is to be used from the present time to the end of the year, the DFA said. With reports from Edson C. Tandoc Jr. and Jerome Aning in Manila; Charlene Cayabyab, Inquirer Central Luzon
