DSWD denies irregularities in building of bunkhouses

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) yesterday denied that there were irregularities in the building of bunkhouses for typhoon “Pablo” victims.

The DSWD said the document being signed by workers, which previous reports said was a padded payroll, was a job order form.

The department was reacting to reports implying that there was possible forgery and falsification of documents in the project, which was supposed to help families affected by Pablo.

The reports cited the case of a certain Romulo Serot and his son Remly, who only worked for one and three days, respectively, but whose payroll indicated that they were paid for 12 days.

The DSWD said the building of bunkhouses in Compostela Valley was done through a “pakyaw contract” or package deal.

The labor cost per program of work and offered for contract is P70,000 per house, it said.  

The DSWD said a “pakyaw contractor” who is interested to join the project will organize his group of at least 10 people. A job order will then be offered where each member would sign to indicate his acceptance of the job order.

It said the members of the “pakyaw group” is not under or paid directly by the DSWD but by their contractor.

“Once the contract is completed, the DSWD will pay the contractor the full amount of P70,000, and the contractor will be responsible for payment of his workers,” the DSWD said.

“No payroll has been tampered, faked or padded since the document allegedly containing the signatures of Romulo and Remly Serot is not a payroll, but a job order,” it added.

Arnold Sembrano, the contractor the DSWD tapped to build two bunkhouses in Compostela town, had hired Romulo and Remly Serot to work as skilled and unskilled laborers, respectively, the DSWD said.

As a skilled worker, Romulo would be paid P300 per day, while Remly, as unskilled worker, would receive P200 daily.

The DSWD quoted Sembrano as saying that Romulo had worked only for one day, thus receiving P300, while Remly had worked for three days and was paid P600.