The senators and the poor

This refers to the letter of Rodolfo Darwin titled “Senators clueless about poor’s sufferings.” (Inquirer, 1/18/12)

While we sympathize with Darwin’s plight and the difficulty that he reportedly went through in seeking medical and financial help from the Senate Public Assistance Center (PAC), we disagree with his observation that senators are “clueless about the sufferings of the poor.”

It is precisely because of their concern for the poor that the senators pooled part of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to set up the PAC to attend to the medical, financial, legal and employment needs of their poor constituents.

In fact, the PAC gets close to a thousand requests for assistance daily, making the PAC second only to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) when it comes to the number of assistance-seekers. We are told that while PAC staff members try their best to accommodate everyone, oftentimes the huge volume of assistance-seekers simply overwhelms them.

In the case of Darwin, we requested PAC director Lino Ong to look into his request for assistance, but we were told that, after conducting a thorough search, PAC could not find his papers.  Through this letter, may I request Darwin to see me, or Director Ong, so that we can address his concerns as soon as possible.

—SAMMY SANTOS,

print media director,

Public Relations and

Information Bureau,

Senate of the Philippines