Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–The messy warehouse of relief goods intended for Supertyphoon “Yolanda” victims as shown by TV5 network and posted on its Web portal Interaksyon.com last month is actually being occupied by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and World Food Program (WFP).
Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman on Saturday reported that the investigation conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development disproved the report that the unkempt relief hub was being maintained by DSWD in Tacloban City.
Soliman had asked the network’s management to correct the report aired on March 26 but the network issued a statement standing by its story and even aired the same story again on April 14 over its radio station.
TV5 has said that the warehouse it has been featuring is located in Barangay Caibaan in Tacloban City.
Soliman said she sent a DSWD team to location and found a warehouse that is being occupied by the Unicef and the WFP. In fact, WFP confirmed to the DSWD field office in the region that they are the ones maintaining the warehouse.
Soliman also said that contrary to the TV5’s claim that there was a signage “Task Force Yolanda-DSWD Hub,” the DSWD team did not see anything that would describe it as such.
“Attributing the Caibaan warehouse to the DSWD by showing the signage is creating a wrong public impression and misinformation,” Soliman stressed.
She said that DSWD warehouses are located in Barangays Apitong and Abucay in Tacloban City with the Task Force Yolanda-DSWD Hub banner prominently displayed on the façade. In the same compound in Apitong is also the warehouse of the National Food Authority, she said.