DAVAO CITY – Militant partylist Gabriela Women’s Party wants disaster agencies to explain why typhoon survivors in the Visayas are still living in poor conditions two years after Typhoon Yolanda struck the region.
Representative Emmi De Jesus of GWP said she will take off from assertions made by rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) dilly-dallied on releasing the P167.8-billion budget approved by President Aquino for the rehabilitation of Yolanda-affected areas nearly two years ago, resulting to 2,000 families forced to stay in squalid refugee camps without electricity or water for nearly two years. Lacson stepped down in February from his post.
“The government should answer why there is only less than three percent of the target 21,012 permanent housing built based on their records,” De Jesus said.
The Social Watch also revealed that the Department of Budget and Management released only P84 billion out of the approved 167.8B for the rehabilitation of 14 provinces struck by calamities that includes Yolanda.
“Before Aquino again promises to throw in more money into the P3-trillion budget for 2016, Congress must hold to account DBM Secretary Butch Abad for the way he disburses and controls disaster funds. Despite the Supreme Court ruling against realignments and savings from budget items, we still see massive re-channeling of critical funds seemingly for the Liberal Party’s election war chest in 2016,” De Jesus said.
De Jesus cited reports from the Commission on Audit on September 2014 that quick response funds (QRF) of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the donations received by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) were merely kept in banks and realigned to the Armed Forces of the Philippines bank accounts as a “reserve for disaster operations” instead for the original budget item as a relief fund for Yolanda, while sums were spent for Command Center duty personnel subsistence to buy groceries and medicines.
The COA added that this has been “depriving the disaster/calamity victims of timely assistance in their lowliest times and defeating the purpose of the donations.” (davaotoday.com)
