DONATIONS flowed after govern ment sought international help when typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng devastated parts of Metro Manila and Northern Luzon.

Our rich neighboring countries gave cash in millions of dollars.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was the government agency that received all the cash and the relief goods from abroad.

Sun.Star accepts donations for victims of Typhoon Ondoy

But there are disturbing reports that relief goods from Unicef and the United Nations’ World Food Program did not reach the victims of the two typhoons and allegedly remain untouched in the warehouses

A copy of a blog entry sent to me by a friend in the United States stated that relief goods from Spain and the US that were delivered by Unicef and the UN World Food Program were stockpiled in DSWD warehouses.

A certain Ella, a Filipino volunteer at a DSWD warehouse, circulated copies of the blog entry together with photos. She claimed that the relief goods from the US and Spain had not been opened. What were repacked and delivered to the victims were locally donated items.

Ella said taking pictures of the stockpile of relief goods from abroad was prohibited. The warehouses, which did not have workers except for a security guard, were considered restricted areas. Piles of relief goods were stored there.

The volunteer claimed that after working a whole day at the DSWD warehouse, they only managed to repack 150 sacks of relief goods that the trucks delivered to the evacuation centers that day.

The first two shipments for the typhoon victims consisting of high-energy food from the World Food Program were still to be distributed. The biscuits were fortified with essential vitamins and minerals for supplementary feeding to children, pregnant women and elderly in the evacuation camps.

Ella, who also took pictures of the relief goods, said a sack containing 20 cans of sardines, a cooking pot, bar soaps, a towel, a pack of sanitary napkin, a roll of blanket, a blue water jug and two mats, were all local products.

DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral only came up with the lame excuse that they didn’t have volunteers to help repack the donated relief goods from abroad.

Cabral lied because volunteers had been helping the DSWD in repacking and distributing the relief goods. And had there been no volunteers as claimed, the DSWD secretary could have sought assistance from the Armed Forces. The DSWD could also have hired those displaced by the calamity since the donations received were in dollars.

Victims of the calamity were sick and dying so DSWD should have acted with dispatch. Cabral’s lackadaisical attitude exposed her incompetence. But was she instructed by higher-ups not to distribute the relief goods?

The suspicion that these relief goods did not reach the typhoon victims has basis because a similar incident happened before.

The suspicion is further buttressed by the fact that elections are coming.

Those who interacted in Ella’s blog strongly suspected that the relief goods will be used for the coming elections. Worse is if these goods will be replaced with expiring, if not expired, products. We would then find these donated items sold in supermarkets.

How shameful our government leaders are. It is a criminal offense for one to take advantage of the situation during calamities. These scalawags should be brought to court for their misdeeds.