Rotten relief food is being buried while Yolander victims starve. I cannot stomach this sad news! But it is a reality... TACLOBAN CITY—Truckloads of food aid that had gone bad was buried in an open dump in Barangay San Jose on Feb. 5 and March 6, a municipal officer of Palo, Leyte, admitted Monday. Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer Nina Balderas said biscuits, cupcakes, canned goods and rice were declared unfit for human consumption and were buried after they began to smell. Even used clothing was dumped, she said. Residents said the food aid was buried in haste in a remote village that could be reached only through an unpaved road. Balderas also said some of the goods were already about to expire when they were delivered. Residents near the dump said that they suspected some irregularity because of the haste with which the goods were buried. Barangay San Jose Councilman Eubejeldo Amolo, who lives near the dumpsite, said that last Thursday, March 6, he saw two garbage trucks of the municipality of Palo dumping sacks of rice and assorted goods in a pit. A bulldozer immediately filled in the pit. This was the second time food aid was buried by the municipality of Palo, he said. The first was some time in February. After the garbage trucks left, residents near the dumpsite dug up the discarded goods and brought them home. Some said that they will feed it to their dogs, hogs and chickens, while others said that there are items they salvaged that could still be eaten. Dont you even see the desperation in those victims who have had to dig up what these people have buried? The DSWD also came under fire at the House, where members of the independent minority accused Secretary Corazon Soliman of bribing Yolanda survivors with P1,200 in cash grants in exchange for “favorable feedback” about her department’s relief and rehabilitation operations. Reyes said the Yolanda survivors vehemently refused to sign the petition because it was the “opposite of what is actually happening on the ground.” “The petition was commending Soliman and it says that Soliman and the DSWD were taking care of the survivors and that they were doing their best to uplift their plight and help them recover from the onslaught of Yolanda,” Reyes told the Manila Standard. Full report here: manilastandardtoday/2014/03/11/rotten-food-aid-buried-/
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 12:47:46 +0000
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