DSWD to Gov. Degamo: Get real, get name off relief bags

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has advised Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo to refrain from putting his name on bags of relief goods distributed to people affected by the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu and Negros provinces last week.

The same advice goes for other politicians who may have the same idea.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said officials of the department had advised Degamo about not putting his name on packs of relief goods even if the goods came from the provincial government.

Soliman said she also called the attention of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo about the actions of Degamo. Robredo has jurisdiction over local government officials.

Apologetic

“From any point of view, it’s not good to put your name there,” she said.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed a bill that has come to be known as the “anti-epal bill,” referring to the colloquial term for government officials who love to be in the spotlight (mapapel) or  are thick-skinned (makapal) who tend to put their names and faces on government projects.

Degamo was amenable to the DSWD reminder, she said. “He was in fact apologetic,” Soliman  added.

Robredo said he also advised Degamo to remove stickers bearing the governor’s name on relief goods.

Twitter account

“Yes, I think he complied,” Robredo said in a text message to the Inquirer, but he did not elaborate. The secretary earlier said he would tell the governor to “refrain from using the calamity for political purposes.”

Soliman said she directed DSWD officials to talk to Degamo after learning about the incident through her Twitter account and after having verified its accuracy. A Twitter user had called her attention to the matter.

She noted that private companies that donated goods to the earthquake victims had volunteers or personnel who wore T-shirts with the names or logos of the donor firms, but these were not on the relief packs.

Hardest hit

Negros Oriental is one of the provinces hardest hit by the earthquake, which has claimed the lives of more than 40 people. Many of them died in a landslide that hit Guihulngan City.

Provincial officials earlier said that the relief goods with Degamo’s name came from the provincial government, and that the governor’s name was placed on the bags for information purposes.

New governor

They said some people were unaware that Degamo was the new governor of the province.

Degamo assumed the post recently after the province’s governor and vice governor died in quick succession.

The elected governor, Emilio Macias II, died from liver cancer on June 13, 2010, before he could take his oath.

He was replaced by Agustin Perdices, but the latter succumbed to stomach cancer on Jan. 6, 2011.

Degamo, who was then the No. 1 member of the provincial board, thus became governor.—With a report from DJ Yap

Originally posted at 11:04 pm | Thursday, February 16,  2012