TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—Ten coffee sachets. This was the last “relief assistance” that 43-year-old Estrelia Toledo received from the government as a victim of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”
On Monday, the mother of 10 children whose husband, Isagani, is in and out of work as a laborer, joined about a thousand victims of Yolanda from this city and other parts of Leyte and Samar in front of the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“The government appears not to be sensitive to the plight of poor people who are still suffering from the wrath of Yolanda,” said Toledo.
“What is more disheartening is their decision to stop the giving of relief goods to us victims,” added Toledo, resident of Barangay San Diego, Alangalang, in Leyte.
She said the last time her family received relief assistance from the DSWD was on March 17 consisting of 10 coffee sachets. There was no rice, canned goods and noodles, items that are usually part of food packages being distributed by the government to victims of Yolanda.
The DSWD earlier announced that it would stop distributing relief goods to the victims starting March 31, or about four months after the Nov. 8, 2013, storm that killed more than 2,000 people in Tacloban City alone.
Toledo said that she hoped that the protest rally would be heeded by the government and prompt it to continue distributing relief goods and release the P40,000 cash assistance per family of those who died in the storm as demanded by People Surge, a broad coalition of different organizations.
Jun Berino, one of the leaders of People Surge, said the group would continue pressing for its demands until these are heeded by the government. “This government is not sensitive to our people. We will continue our protest rally,” Berino said.
Virgie Idano, assistant regional director of the regional DSWD office, said that the decision to stop the distribution of relief goods was practical since it has been over four months now since Yolanda pummeled Tacloban City and other parts of the Visayas.
“We are now in the rehabilitation phase. We should now start rebuilding our lives and stop depending on dole outs,” Idano said.
She, however, said victims who belong to what she said was a “vulnerable sector”—senior citizens, pregnant women, persons with disabilities—would continue to receive assistance from the government.
Able-bodied persons could avail themselves of the cash-for-work program being initiated by the government, Idano said.
She said that the national government has allotted a P265-million budget for the cash-for-work program for Eastern Visayas.
Idano said up to 113,000 people could avail themselves of the program which involves clearing and cleaning of communities. The cash-for-work program lasts for 15 days with each beneficiary to receive P260 in salary per day.