DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman. FILE PHOTO
TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—A group of victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) is demanding the resignation of Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman after the Commission on Audit (COA) reported that food packs worth P2.7 million were lost to spoilage because of improper handling.
Soliman, however, said the amount of food that was spoiled was just 0.35 percent of the total amount of food that her department had distributed to victims of the storm.
“What got wet was only 7,000, or only 0.35 percent, of all the food packs we distributed,” Soliman said in a text message.
“The total food packs we distributed were more than 2 million. I hope this issue will be seen in this context,” she said.
Marissa Cabaljao, spokesperson for the group People Surge, said the spoiled food could have been distributed to “Yolanda” victims had it not been for what she said was Soliman’s “inefficiency.”
Cabaljao said her group had been calling for Soliman’s resignation since March and the latest case of food spoilage made the demand for Soliman’s resignation more pressing.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) earlier said the spoilage of relief stocks from Cebu City and Isabel town, Leyte province, happened because the goods got wet while in transit at sea.
Food items found to be unfit for human consumption were reported to the COA, the DSWD said.
Soliman said the audit was done in December 2013 and was not an audit report on the total effort of the government or the DSWD.
“I also suggest that they read the whole report as there are positive comments mentioned about our efforts,” she said.
People Surge had been asking the government to provide “Yolanda” victims with P40,000 each in financial assistance, continue distributing food packs and stop enforcing the no-build zone policy that prohibits the construction of houses in areas tagged as high risk, like coastal villages.
According to the COA report, 7,527 food packs were spoiled before these could be distributed by the DSWD to survivors of “Yolanda” in the Visayas.
The food items consisted of 95,472 canned goods, 81 packs of noodles and 21 sacks of rice.
Cabaljao said her group was shocked by the big number of relief food packs that just went to waste.
“Had they distributed these food packs in time, they could have helped thousands of families who were hungry and are still hungry now,” she said.
The group said the discovery of the spoiled food packs only confirmed earlier claims that relief stocks distributed to the victims were no longer fit for human consumption.
Typhoon victim Flora Gatmaitan, 47, said she felt “angry” that the government had allowed the food packs to go to waste.
“The government, in effect, denied the thousands of people who could have availed themselves of these food packs,” Gatmaitan said.
“They should be considerate enough that while the typhoon happened 10 months ago, many of the victims could hardly afford to buy their food,” she said.