Ombudsman investigates undistributed relief goods

CEBU CITY — The Office of the Ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the undistributed relief goods and buried cans of sardines at the city’s Social Development Center.

Ombudsman director Virginia Palanca-Santiago said they opened the fact-finding inquiry after one of the SDC’s social workers who was transferred to another office when the undistributed goods were discovered, went to the Ombudsman to narrate what she knew.

Last week, councilor Jerry Carillo went to the SDC office and found relief goods consisting of food and building materials intended for distribution to calamity victims, to have been merely stored and left undistributed.

The undistributed relief goods include bags of rotten rice, rusting canned goods, decaying sheets of plywood, cans of paint, sheets of galvanized iron, nails, shovels, and boxes of bottled water.

Carillo, alleged to have received a complaint about the alleged withholding of relief goods as early as November last year, also found canned sardines buried in a shallow hole within the compound.

"We should look into this... Many people are in need of food," Santiago said.

She said the social worker went to her office last Friday because she was reportedly bothered by her conscience when she saw the stockpiling of relief goods.

Last Nov. 21, Virginia Piccio, a former social worker in the city’s Department of Social Welfare and Service, wrote a letter to Mayor Tomas Osmeña through Carillo, saying that on that same day, DSWS chief Nida Sistona caused some 200 cans of sardines to be buried inside the SDC compound in Labangon without the required inspection and appraisal by the city auditor or his representative.

Nena Montalban, the center’s administrative officer, said she should not be held accountable because the deposit and withdrawal of stocks are not within the authority given her by Sistona.

Sistona has admitted ordering a box of rusting cans of sardines to be buried last July 3 to prevent their distribution and prevent health risks to those who may receive them. — Freeman News Service