Evacuees selling food rations

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Local officials and representatives of the World Food Program (WFP) began investigating yesterday the reported “habitual selling” by evacuees of food rations to traders in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat to earn something while they are in relief centers.

“Together with the Philippine government and others, we will double check it and coordinate with these people as well,” WFP country director Stephen Anderson told Catholic radio station dxMS here.

Anderson and Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsura were here the other day to preside over the symbolic distribution of rice procured by the WFP using Japanese grants, to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Central Mindanao.

Evacuees in Maguindanao have reportedly been selling rice and other relief goods given to them by the WFP and the International Committee of the Red Cross to have money for their other needs while staying in the evacuation centers.

A gallon of palm oil is reportedly being sold to traders in Sultan Kudarat for only P160.

Musib Tan, executive assistant to the mayor of Datu Piang town, said they have been receiving persistent reports that some evacuees have been selling rice and cooking oil distributed by relief agencies to earn extra money.

“Understandably they also have other needs like viands, extra cash for the schooling of their children, for firewood and kerosene which they need for their lamps, and medicine,” he said.

Tan said many evacuees have also been forced to use their rations as “collateral” for unpaid accounts with traders. 

Since last May, a family in any of the evacuation centers in Maguindanao has been receiving from the WFP 25 kilos of rice, 24 packs of instant noodles, six cans of sardines, two gallons of cooking oil, a bottle of soy sauce, a kilo each of sugar and iodized salt, two 100-gram packs of instant coffee, and two bars of soap.

Japan has just donated 8,160 metric tons of rice to the WFP to help sustain the agency’s relief operations for thousands of evacuees in North Cotabato and Maguindanao.

Anderson told local officials and representatives of various peace advocacy groups who accompanied him and Katsura in their Central Mindanao tour that the WFP is grateful to the Japanese government for donating rice for IDPs in the South.

“This rice is being distributed to needy and displaced families. It will also play a critical role in complementing longer-term food security initiatives in Mindanao, thus building the stake of the conflict-affected population in the peace process,” Anderson said.

For 2006 alone, Japan provided the WFP a total of P577.5 million for relief missions in Mindanao.

Globally, Japan has donated a total of $190.7 million to the WFP, reports from the relief agency said.

Mae Chatto, WFP’s senior public information assistant in the Philippines, said they have been supporting the government’s relief and recovery programs in Mindanao to address food security concerns brought about by the armed conflict.

Figures released by the Armed Forces showed that the number of IDPs displaced by the yearlong fighting in the Lanao provinces and Central Mindanao has dropped from more than 250,000 to at least 100,000.

“Most of the IDPs have gone back to their respective homes and the others opted to stay in evacuation centers or with their relatives,” said military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr.

Most of the evacuees are concentrated in the Maguindanao towns of Datu Piang and Mamasapano.

Amnesty International recently reported that the Philippines has the most number of IDPs worldwide. – With Jaime Laude