CEBU, Philippines - The head of the Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP) Collin Rosell was surprised when he discovered that his predecessors had bloated the number of beneficiaries of the city’s urban poor projects for the past several years.
Rosell said that when he assumed office a few months ago, he was told that DWUP had assisted some 38,000 beneficiaries of the city-initiated urban poor projects when in reality there were only about 12,000 families who benefited from the projects.
Although the city may not have suffered any financial loses with the increased the number of beneficiaries, Collin said it is possible that it was done purposely to generate more financial support from the national government.
The Freeman tried but failed to contact Engr. Danilo Gabiana who headed DWUP for the past several years.
Rosell said he was also dismayed upon learning that DWUP had very low collection efficiency from families who availed of the city’s urban poor projects. DWUP personnel reportedly did not collect aggressively and simply waited for the beneficiaries to fulfill their obligations.
“Maghuwat ra man sila nga mobayad ang mga beneficiaries,” Rosell said in a press briefing at City Hall yesterday.
Rosell said he wants to form a team to attend to the problem. The first thing to do, he said, is send notices to the concerned urban poor beneficiaries informing them of their outstanding and payable dues, as well as to those who have been delinquent in the payment of their amortizations.
Another reason why collection has allegedly been ineffective is that the contracts the city entered into with the beneficiaries through several community associations have already expired.
Rosell said that of the 117 existing community associations whose members have availed of the city’s urban poor projects, 60 of them have expired contracts. Each community association has hundreds of member-families.
Records showed that the city spent about P500 million for urban poor projects in the past 20 years, but has only collected more than P100 million because thousands of the beneficiaries have stopped paying their obligations. – (FREEMAN)