DAR employees ask: Why deposit storm donations in private account?

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes: Seeking contributions from other DAR employees. Photo from www.dar.gov.ph/

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is asking its employees to help  their colleagues in areas affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” by depositing donations to the personal bank account of Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes’ right-hand man.

DAR Employees Association (DAREA) president Nanette Pascual said the members were “highly disappointed” that the DAR leadership had not made any offer to help stricken DAR employees in the central Philippines but had resorted to seeking contributions from other DAR employees.

Pascual said DAREA members were also dismayed by the DAR leadership’s decision to use a personal account of the secretary’s top assistant to receive their donations.

Assistant

In Memorandum No. 380 issued by the Office of the Secretary on Nov. 12, employees were asked to deposit their donations to the Land Bank of the Philippines account of his head executive assistant, Justin Vincent La Chica.

The employees were told to send by e-mail details of their donation—amount, date, time and bank branch—for “better” accounting.

“The entire fund that would be collected will be properly accounted for and will be utilized to aid DAR’s field personnel affected by the storm in a socialized and justifiable manner,” said La Chica in the memo he wrote and signed himself.

Pascual said this was “highly irregular.”

Not illegal

But in a phone interview, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said there was nothing illegal about designating a personal account for collecting the employees’ donations.

“This is not unprecedented, we did this (using the personal bank account of the secretary’s head assistant for donations) in 2012 with Typhoon Pablo. There is nothing illegal here as far as I am concerned,” said Parungao.

Pascual said that at least four of the over 500 employees of the DAR regional office in Leyte were confirmed to have died during the storm. She said that up to 90 percent of the employees were rendered homeless by the supertyphoon.

“There is no help from the DAR to rebuild their office or fix their homes. They have yet to receive their salaries; there are no mercy missions by management unlike previous administrations,” said Pascual.