Roxas warns LGUs: Don’t do selective relief distribution

BOHOL, Philippines – More than 73,000 families in Bohol affected by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake need help.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas warns mayors and barangay officials: Do not hoard the goods.

Voltaire Tupaz reports.

Interior and local government Secretary Mar Roxas is angry over reports local officials in Bohol are hoarding relief goods.
He orders the Philippine National Police to conduct a probe.

MAR ROXAS
INTERIOR SECRETARY
Alam po namin kung ano ang dami ng mga food packs na lumalabas mula dito sa kapitolyo at sa DSWD. DILG, national government, will exercise lead supervisory powers kung mapatunayan na pinipili po ninyo kung sino ang tutulungan ninyo. (Let’s not mix politics with relief response. DILG, the national government, will exercise lead supervisory powers if it will be proven that you are selecting relief beneficiaries.)

From the province to the towns, the flow of relief goods is fast.
The DSWD and provincial government say they ensure that goods are flown in or brought to poblacions by land.

MAR ROXAS
INTERIOR SECRETARY
Alam po namin kung ano ang dami ng mga food packs na lumalabas mula dito sa kapitolyo at sa DSWD. Alam din ho namin kung sino ang mga tumatanggap nito at the municipal, barangay levels. May mga targeted beneficiaries po yan. (We know how many food packs are dispatched from the capitol and DSWD. We know who receive them at the municipal and barangay levels. We have targeted beneficiaries.)

The problem starts in town centers.
Many affected families from villages and even those in evacuation centers in town plazas complain water and food don’t reach them.

68-year-old Rodulfo Requillo and his 16 relatives sought refuge in front of a government building.

He is not able to complain to the DILG Secretary, who passes by their makeshift shelter. He talks to us.

RODULFO REQUILLO
RESIDENT OF TUBIGON TOWN
Di naman naming natanggap. Para bang nadiskarga, pero di naming nalamaman kung saan galing o saan pumunta yung mga goods. Di natin maiwasan ang mga reklamo na, “ah pamulitiko yun. (We didn’t receive anything. Goods were unloaded, but we didn’t know where they came from or where they were delivered. We couldn’t help thinking, this is politicking.)

Mel Castro, A Facebook user from the previously isolated town of Maribojoc also complains her grandparents have not received relief goods. Castro says in a viral post, “When I visited them for the first time since the earthquake, I found they were not given their relief goods because ‘they could no longer vote’.”

She expresses her “outrage at this utter disrespect to my grandparents.”

Mel says her grandmother never leaves her 92-year grandfather who is recovering from a stroke. Their house is badly damaged.Secretary Mar Roxas and other national and provincial officials breeze through reopened roads when they visit towns to check the condition of the roads, bridges, and evacuation centers.

Maribojoc and other towns in Bohol are now accessible.
There is no reason why assistance can’t reach these areas.
It seems a mix of bureaucratic bottlenecks, lack of systems and politicking…
has turned this into a logistical nightmare.
Voltaire Tupaz, Rappler, Bohol. – Rappler.com