SOME families in Barangay Taytayan, Bogo City are protesting because they failed to get financial aid from the emergency shelter assistance (ESA) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) intended for survivors of typhoon Yolanda.
About 11 residents trooped to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas yesterday morning and asked the anti-graft office to investigate Amabel Mayor, DWSD chief in Bogo City, and Taytayan Barangay Captain Teresita Ursal for their failure to release the financial assistance.
Rogelio Estobar, one of the complainants, said only 375 out of 1, 300 households, whose houses were either destroyed or damaged by the typhoon, received financial assistance.
He said that a representative from the ombudsman's Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office promised to promptly act on their complaint.
Conditions
The residents said that Mayor and Ursal refused to release their financial assistance because they did not meet the conditions set in the release of emergency shelter assistance.
Ursal, in an interview with Sun.Star Superbalita, confirmed that several residents in her barangay have not received the ESA from the National Government. She is willing to answer their concerns in a proper forum.
But she appealed to her constituents not to blame the barangay since they did not submit the final list of beneficiaries to DSWD.
She said she has not assumed as village chief when the list of the typhoon survivors were submitted to the government.
Sun.Star Cebu called the DSWD in Bogo City and Flor Alburo, staff of the Bogo City Budget Office, said that Mayor was not available for interview yesterday afternoon.
Disqualified
DSWD reportedly disqualified households with a combined income of P15,000 and above and households living within the 40-meter danger zones.
A family whose house was damaged will receive P10,000, while those whose house were destroyed will get P30,000.
The DSWD earlier said that its guidelines was already set and implemented in 2012 or a year before Yolanda. The agency only raised the amount for Yolanda victims.
Originally, the DSWD guidelines for typhoon victims set the assistance at P5,000 for owners of damaged houses and P10,000 for those with destroyed homes. In 2012, only those whose income was below P10,000 could get assistance.
With typhoon Yolanda, DSWD raised the amount to P10,000 for damaged houses and P30,000 for destroyed homes. Also, only those earning below P15,000 are eligible to receive the assistance.