SAN PEDRO, Laguna — A seemingly underground market has emerged at the evacuation centers here that have been housing thousands of families displaced by the lingering deluge left by Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (International name: Ketsana).

Sacks of goods collected from dole-outs are brought out at night and are sold at the most obscure places of the town proper.

Although the municipal social welfare and development office (MSWDO) can not give an exact number of such cases, MSWD officer Ma. Fatima Autor confirmed reports of relief goods being sold.

“We cannot blame them. Some may have received excessive goods. They sell them for money (probably) to buy medicines,” she said.

San Pedro is one of the hardest-hit towns in Laguna by typhoon Ondoy in September.

The flood has remained chest and neck high and even worsened after Typhoon “Santi” (International name: Mirinae) brought strong winds and rains on Oct. 31.

There are 4,701 families affected by the flood from the coastal villages of Landayan, San Roque and Cuyab.

At least 1,000 families are lodged at the eight evacuation centers in the town.

“We were able to catch five evacuees (smuggling the relief goods),” said Ofelia Chavez, also of the MSWDO, in a separate interview.

Chavez said the evacuees would sneak out at night and if caught, would say they needed to check their homes and belongings left in the flooded areas.

“One time, this man carried a sack he claimed to contain garbage. But when we checked it, we found out that he was carrying canned goods,” she added.

Evacuees usually sell canned sardines for only P5 each. At the San Pedro market, each costs between P9 to P12.

Chavez said evacuees would rather lower the price so they could easily dispose the merchandise.

As a sanction, the MSWDO confiscates the cards (a record given to each evacuee that indicates the number of times he has received relief goods) or takes them out of the list of evacuees.

The office, however, does not evict them from the evacuation centers.

No homes

But an evacuee at the San Pedro elementary school, who refused to be named for fear of being taken of the list of evacuees, denied the practice and said the relief goods were not even enough to feed them.

“Authorities here think we choose to stay here because of the relief goods but that is not the case,” she said.

She said her home in Barangay (village) Landayan was still submerged in flood. Her husband, who works as electrician, earns little.

“We’ve been encouraging them to return to their homes because we do not want to spoon feed them. Their lives are not normal at the evacuation centers. It’s hard. But how can we do that if we ourselves see that it is still not possible with their homes still under water,” said Autor.

Even after the flood subsides, some may no longer have homes to return to with their houses already bedraggled after being soaked in water for a long time, Chavez said.

The MSWDO has been conducting regular surveys to check the homes left by the evacuees.

It said the MSWDO is coping with the situation that is expected to last until December with the relief goods regularly coming from the national government and charity organizations. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon