Miriam seeks probe on unused Yolanda funds

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago is calling for a Senate inquiry into the hundreds of millions of pesos in donations the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reportedly failed to use for victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Santiago will file a resolution next week seeking an investigation on the Yolanda funds based on a Commission on Audit (COA) report released recently that almost half a billion pesos worth of donations were either kept in bank accounts or used to buy relief goods never distributed to the typhoon victims.

“The purpose of donations is defeated if the funds sit idly in government bank accounts. The DSWD is not only denying disaster victims much-needed assistance, they are also misusing money from donors and taxpayers,” she said in a statement.

Santiago cited the COA report that P382.072 million in local and foreign donations for Yolanda victims remained in DSWD bank accounts by end of 2014.

The agency had P141.084 million worth of undistributed and expired or near-expiry food packs.

Santiago agreed with the COA that the DSWD was remiss in accepting hundreds of millions in donations without increasing its warehousing facilities, personnel, available stocks, shelf life and needs of the victims.

The senator wants the DSWD probed for failing to attain its target of providing emergency shelter assistance to 468,732 homeless beneficiaries.

The COA claimed that the agency only provided shelter to 142,348, spending P3 billion in the process.

Santiago questioned gaps in the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), highlighting COA findings that some P312 million in cash grants were unclaimed from the Land Bank of the Philippines.

“Clearly, there is something wrong about the government’s flagship anti-poverty program. They must explain the multiple entries on the list of 4Ps beneficiaries and the frequent delays in coordination and grant payments,” she said.

Santiago slammed the delays in the DSWD’s supplementary feeding program because of poor coordination with partner agencies. About half of the 116,637 beneficiaries of the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program also failed to claim their pensions, she said.

“The government must take social welfare seriously. Those running the DSWD seem to think they can afford to slack. Not only must social welfare programs be well thought out, they must effectively be implemented,” Santiago said.  – With Rainier Allan Ronda