Be transparent with ‘Yolanda’ aid, donors and recepients urged

By: Bong Lozada - 10 years ago

AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Nearly five months after Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) battered Eastern Visayas, Malacañang is still on the trail to ensure the transparancy and accountability of donations pledged to the victims of one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that a government website, Foreign Aid Transparency Hub (FAiTH), would post all the donations coursed through or given to private companies.

“The reason for FAiTH version 2, if the donations came from a foreign government, or coursed through development agencies or multilateral organizations, the donations would be included there,” Lacierda said in a media briefing Sunday after the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) spent P7.7-million in donations.

Lacierda said that the government asked private institutions to list down the donations and where these pledges have ended up.

“We asked them for FAiTH version 2, to not only list the donations that they give to the government, we also ask them to list down where their donations went, whether to their development agencies, or to the Philippine National Red Cross.”

He added that private institutions should detail the donations that were given to the survivors of “Yolanda.”

Lacierda said that the government also wants private institutions to be transparent and accountable for all the donations that they receive and distribute.

“This is a call for accountability on everyone’s part, those who received donations,” Lacierda said, “We only have persuasive requests for them to also be just as transparent and accountable as the government has committed to be.”