Gov't confirms cases of rotten relief goods being buried

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) confirmed today that spoiled relief goods supposedly for the survivors of typhoon Haiyan were buried early this month.

But the department clarified that only one sack of assorted biscuits, 10 cups of instant noodles, half a sack of wet rice, and one sack of used clothing were buried in the dumpsite of Palo town in the central Philippine province of Leyte and not truckloads of goods as earlier reported.

The goods came from "various agencies," it said.

The DSWD also confirmed that goods comprising of 300 milliliters of bottled water, cup noodles, foiled viand and biscuits from a private organization and were given directly to local government units concerned got rotten and they were no longer given to the people.

With these cases of rotten relief goods, the DSWD ordered the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Offices to always check the expiration date and the quality of goods being donated to them before they distribute these so as not to compromise the health and well-being of their constituents.

The DSWD said it will conduct a comprehensive investigation to ascertain the circumstances of storing donated goods, identify areas for technical assistance to improve the capacity of the local government units in storage and distribution of relief goods.

To date, the DSWD has already distributed more than 5 million food packs to Haiyan-affected local government units in Eastern Visayas.

Haiyan, which struck the country last November, left at least 6, 200 people dead, over 1,700 others missing and millions of families homeless.