DSWD: Warehousemen dumped rice in pit

TACLOBAN CITY—A warehouse supervisor of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Eastern Visayas was behind the dumping of 164 sacks of spoiled rice into a pit inside a private lot in Dagami town, 40 kilometers from here, the agency’s top regional official said.

“I apologize to the public. The conduct of my employees will reflect on me—[by virtue of] command responsibility,” said Nestor Ramos, director of the DWSD regional office.

Ramos said the warehouse official, whom he did not identify, acted on his own and threw away the spoiled rice, which was stored in the facility along with other relief items, without coordinating with the regional office. He gave assurance that the official would be under investigation.

Policemen acting on an informant’s tip reported the discovery of the 164 sacks of rice, each weighing 50 kilograms and bearing the logo of the National Food Authority (NFA), inside the pit in Maca-alang, an interior village situated 20 km from the town center of Dagami.

The sacks of rice were part of the 3,774 sacks intended for survivors of Typhoon “Ruby” (international name: Hagupit) on Samar Island, Ramos said. The typhoon hit Eastern Visayas in December 2014, just a year after the region was pummeled by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan), the world’s strongest typhoon to hit landfall.

He said most of the grains came from the NFA office in Cebu and were brought by a Philippine Navy ship to Tacloban City, where relief items were usually stored at Citi Hardware. But 164 sacks got wet during the delivery and later spoiled, he said.

Henry Tristeza, assistant manager of the NFA regional office, said there was no record of any possible disposable of rice from any agency or local government unit.

Ramos told the Inquirer that the warehouse personnel dumped the sacks of rice in the Maca-alang property, which, he said, is owned by a friend of the DSWD warehouse supervisor. They acted even without the DSWD securing a clearance from the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).

The BFAD clearance was needed because the rice might be used as animal feed.

But Ramos said his office had already obtained a clearance from the Commission on Audit and the National Archive for the disposal of records.

“But the problem was our in-charge at our warehouse at Citi Hardware did not coordinate with my office when he disposed these sacks of rice,” he said. “But I think he just acted on good faith. The problem was he did not follow the process before he decided to dispose of these items.”