RESIDENTS who were greatly affect by flood three weeks ago expressed disappointment on the lack of system in allocating assistance to the victims.
Facebook user Hope Militante Fernandez posted on social media the lack of proper information dissemination and system in allocating assistance to the affected victims last Saturday, September 14.
She said the affected residents in Talomo, where she is residing, waited for hours only to be told by those in-charge in the distribution that their names and respective purok are not included in those who will be given cash assistance during that day.
"Ala una ng hapon 'ha, so tanghali 'ng tapat, hala pila-pila na. Nakakadismaya coz di pala lahat makakatanggap. Sa per purok, di pala lahat makakatanggap. Eh di sana nag-announce nalang sila ahead of time before pa nagdagsaan mga tao kung sinusino lang from those purok ang makakatanggap ng kanilang cash assistance ngayon... [sic] (At 1 p.m., we are already in line. It was disappointing to find out that not all puroks will be recieving assistance. They should have announced ahead of time that only those who are scheduled to receive assistance on the said date so that other residents from the other areas will not have to line up)," Fernandez said in her post.
Fernandez, a non-government organization worker and one of the affected residents, said among those who fell in line for the assistance are elders, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
In a phone interview, she said the distribution was "disorganized" and the barangay officials in-charge did not properly disseminated the information to the affected residents, resulting in some going home empty-handed.
"People are so distressed. Any good news na muabot, bisan bugas pa na, mangadto gyud mi (Any good news that would reach us, even when they would announce that they will be giving out a kilo of rice, we would go)," she said.
She clarified, though, that she is not blaming anyone, adding she hopes that the concerned authorities would have a clear system in distributing the assistance.
"Wala pa ba ta nakatuon sa pila ka kalamidad nga miigo sa siyudad, wala pa ba tay klaro nga sistema? (Have we not learned from the previous calamities that struck the city, that until now we don't have a clear system during these times?)," Fernandez said.
"Naa naman sila listing of names (nga giproseso sa CSSDO). Ngano wala gidownload og tarong sa barangay? (The list of the names listed and processed by CSSDO is there. Why did the barangays not properly download it?")," she added.
Meanwhile, affected residents from other areas in the city who were greatly affected by the flood also aired their similar sentiments in the comment section of Fernandez's post.
CSSDO head Maria Luisa Bermudo said they already started distributing financial assistance to the greatly affected areas since last week.
Bermudo said the strict processing of the cash assistance was to ensure that only those legitimate residents in the affected areas will be distributed, resulting in its delay.
"Admittedly, isa pud ni sa nakapadugay sa amoa ning walay masterlist ang matag barangay ug purok sa ilang mga gingsakupan (Admittedly, the lack of a masterlist of the barangay and purok's respective constituents also caused the delay of the allocation of assistance)," Bermudo said.
She said more than 1,000 out of the 13,000 affected families were already given cash assistance. These are from areas of Los Amigos and Tugbok Proper of Tugbok District; Barangay Talomo of Talomo District; and Barangay Wangan of Calinan.
Bermudo said families whose properties were destroyed are given P10,000 cash assistance, while those whose houses were damaged will receive P5,000.
"Hantod karon sagunson atong pagpanghatag sa mga apektadong pamilya. Nalangay lang gyud ta gamay tungod need nato i-establish ang severity sa ilang sitwasyon (We are continuously distributing these assistance to the affected families. There were some delays because we really need to establish the severity of their situation)," she said.