Just perform functions effectively and honestly—DSWD officials told

We commend as well as thank the Inquirer for giving a more accurate, rational and compassionate account of the protest of Typhoon “Pablo” survivors at the Department of Social Welfare and Development office in Davao (“Hunger,” Inquirer, 3/2/13).

Through the three-day protest, camp-out and “raid” conducted by protesters to rightfully claim the relief goods that they were entitled to, mainstream media largely played DSWD’s spin labeling typhoon victims as looters and hooligans, as people led by left-leaning instigators. In effect, media downplayed the justness of their protest and the legitimacy of their calls for relief.

I was with the Pablo survivors when they arrived in Davao and witnessed how they repeatedly tried to schedule a dialogue with DSWD officials, including its regional director who, despite claiming to be unavailable, was able to hold a press conference. The DSWD had failed to deliver on the 10,000 sacks of rice promised in January and it had also announced that relief operations for Pablo victims would stop in March, yet several families in typhoon-stricken areas had not received any aid.

The editorial was right on target in calling Secretary Dinky Soliman’s attention to the functions that the DSWD may have been remiss in performing. Three months have passed since Pablo caused massive devastation in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental, yet the situation of survivors have not improved.

It is indeed time for the social welfare secretary not to be combative and to instead display some  delicadeza  and humility, to acknowledge the DSWD’s shortcomings and directly address the allegations of corruption amid reports of overpriced bunkhouses; of DSWD employees selling relief packs at P200 apiece and shortchanging victims with the distribution of rotten rice; and of delay in relief distribution.

The DSWD should stop trying to divert the basic, fundamental issues that led to the protests by threatening alleged leaders and instigators of Barug Katawhan; instead it should start performing its functions effectively and honestly.

—REP. LUZVIMINDA C. ILAGAN,

Gabriela Women’s Party