“Your mailing system sucks,” American lawyer Robert Swift groused when told that some 30 percent of martial law claimants in southern Mindanao did not get the mailed notice that would have informed them about their P50,000 check, compensation for the atrocities they had suffered during the martial law years.
The money, part of the $10 million that the Hawaii Federal Court had ordered released to Marcos victims, was distributed from Feb. 3 to Feb. 5.
“I’m so disappointed (with) your mailing system,” Swift said during the last day of the checks’ distribution when a group of martial law survivors said they were not aware that they were to be paid until Wednesday.
The notices were sent via priority mail, which would have meant a shorter delivery time, but many claimants said they had yet to receive their mail.
Swift said they had relied on the postal system and had spent “a lot of money for (mailing)” because they believed it was “the best way (to) reach (the claimants).”
Among those who failed to get the notice was Gabriela party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan, who said she would file a resolution in Congress to look into the performance of the Philippine Post.
“We expect (it) to be efficient because that’s the reason (it was) privatized in the first place,” Ilagan said.
The party-list representative said she had sent someone to the post office here to verify if she had undelivered mail, but was told that some of the mailed notices might still be inside an unopened bag of letters sitting at a corner of the postal agency.
The problem was, nobody was sorting it out.
“But who will sort out (the letters)? Does the (post office) expect us to do it?” Ilagan asked. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao
RELATED STORIES
Marcos victims may get $10M from buyer of Imelda Marcos’s Monet
WHAT WENT BEFORE: Martial law victims