Independiente priests ask: Where’s housing aid for ‘Yolanda’ victims?

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—Priests of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) in the Western Visayas have decried the delay in the release of the housing assistance promised by the government to survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

In a resolution passed during its annual regional convention held in Bago City in Negros Occidental from March 9 to 13, the regional chapter of the IFI’s National Priest Organization (NPO) lamented the nonrelease of the promised shelter assistance amounting to P30,000 for destroyed houses and P10,000 for those that were damaged.

“The survivors are in need of true and serious responses from the national government to uplift their way of living,” read the resolution approved by 93 priests representing about 200 parishes in the region.

Fr. Marco Sulayao, NPO national vice chair and regional spokesman, said their parishioners had sought help from priests and had expressed their frustration over the delay in assistance.

“The overwhelming sentiment is frustration and anger that more than a year after the typhoon, they are still waiting for assistance,”Sulayao told the Inquirer.

Rice sacks in restrooms

In their resolution, the priests said that assistance intended for survivors had not been delivered, particularly the hundreds of sacks of government-procured rice that were found in two restrooms at the Antique provincial gymnasium.

Sulayao said many survivors had also been deprived of shelter assistance due to a Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) memorandum which said that those who had a permanent monthly income of more than P15,000 will not be given the emergency shelter assistance (ESA).

Survivors who had received full shelter assistance from international or local nongovernment organizations or private companies were likewise disqualified from the program.

Survivors from different groups have demanded the scrapping of DSWD Memorandum Circular No. 24, which sets guidelines for identifying beneficiaries and the release of the shelter assistance.

In an earlier interview, Evelyn Macapobre, DSWD Western Visayas director, said the field offices were only implementing the guidelines issued by their central office.

“It’s a matter of prioritizing those who need the assistance most because we also have limited resources,”Macapobre told the Inquirer.

She said complaints against the guidelines had been forwarded to the central office.

DSWD Western Visayas has released the ESA to at least 106,000 families, or more than 25 percent, of about 400,000 target beneficiaries.–Nestor P. Burgos Jr. and Carmel Loise Matus, Inquirer Visayas