OCD: P5B already released for Marawi siege victims

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) clarified on Friday a Commission on Audit (COA) report that called it out for spending in 2018 only P10,000 of nearly P37 million in donations to victims of the Marawi siege.

In a statement, Ricardo Jalad, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) administrator and OCD executive director, said that as of May 30, a total of P5.164 billion had already been released for the Marawi rehabilitation and reconstruction program, with P4.8 billion released in 2018.

The OCD serves as the implementing arm of the NDRRMC and coordinator of Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), a government interagency group organized to facilitate the rehabilitation, recovery and reconstruction efforts in Marawi after the 2017 battle between militant groups and government forces.

“We would like to assure the public that the funds for the victims of the Marawi siege in the amount of P36.91 million from various donors is still with the OCD and are not missing,” Jalad said.

Low utilization

“The reason for the low utilization of the donated funds is that the OCD was instead utilizing its Quick Response Fund to ensure the expeditious delivery of services to the victims of Marawi,” he added.

In its 2018 annual audit report for the disaster agency, the COA called out the OCD for its slow and poor use of funds intended for Marawi victims, saying the OCD spent only P10,000 of the P36.92 million in donations to help one family whose member was killed in the fighting.

The NDRRMC has authorized the OCD to give the family of slain residents P10,000 each, and injured residents P5,000 each in financial assistance provided they could submit some documentary requirements which, the COA described as “very burdensome” and could be the reason for the poor use of the Marawi funds.

Jalad said the P36.92 million in donations, which was “just part of the funding source” for the Marawi rehabilitation, was expected to be tapped further after implementing agencies have identified specific projects.

He added that “P5.1 billion (had been) used for different projects, programs and activities (PPAs), such as business and livelihood assistance, housing, land resource management, reconstruction, and health and social services.”

The OCD said that by June, it would have spent another P1 million from the donated funds for a Ramadan holiday project by the TFBM.

“As of this date, the total funding requirement for this year’s [projects are] in the amount of P10 billion, for which the NDRRMC funds only has about P8 billion available.” —JAYMEE T. GAMIL