DSWD Withholding Donated Goods in DSWD Warehouses?

[I copied this from a friend online who sent me the text in Tag-lish (mixed Tagalog & English) and decided to translate it directly to English for the sake of nonFilipino/nonfluent speaking friends. It is really shocking that it has been one month and lack of government response is merely shrugged off by the officials. What is going on here? From the taxation of relief goods, to the withholding of said goods that are already addressed to DSWD (Department of Social Welfare & Development) for proper province/relief center distribution, to frozen PAYPAL charity accounts, it is appalling how these people can call themselves human beings by blocking help given. How can they sleep at night?]

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I’m asking your help to spread the word. Beyond this, we should also demand action. I disabled a plugin so you can copy the photos of relief goods rotting in DSWD warehouses. You can link this post to your blogs, facebook, websites etc. You can also email the photos.

Philippine News (US based Philippine newspaper) will use this as its front page story this week. Every Filipino has the right to know where the tons of donations from the UN and other counties go. Even if its embarrassing for the ones who’ve donated. If this is the only way we can release those goods to go to the victims, then by all means, let’s do it.

For those who have the time, please try to volunteer at the DSWD warehouses. Getting in was not easy. A friend had to put in a word for us. Let’s see how easy it really is for volunteers to get in the DSWD warehouse.

Please read on and good luck to us.

Ella

(This post was last edited Oct 22, 12:30 pm)

From Stella Arnaldo’s blog:

“At the offices of many civic groups and private organizations, hundreds of people showed up to volunteer in packing relief goods.

At the Tulong Bayan center at the Expo Centro in Cubao, Most of the volunteers were adolescents as young as 10 years old, along with their kuya or ate in high school and college.

They came in huge numbers, many of them barkadas, classmates or siblings, dressed just in their tees and shorts, wearing their Havaianas. All were just enthusiastic to do their share!”

Photos by Leah Navarro

Even grade school kids pitched in to help!

Youth volunteers repack detergents for distribution, making beds

GMA asked World for Donations

Our government begged the world for more donations. And the rest of the world replied to our call. In less than three weeks, the ships came, dropping off goods from cargo planes, relief delivered by trucks and container vans. Cash donations were in millions of dollars.

These donations, of course, had to be coursed through DSWD. President GMA herself gave the directive. Individuals, private companies and other nations were ENCOURAGED to send their donations to DSWD.

This PGMA directive sounded suspicious to me then. Now I know why. Here’s the story:

A group of eight people, one of the writers of this article included, went to one of DSWD warehouses to help in repacking relief goods. We knew they needed volunteers but little did we know that  THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO ONE INSIDE THE WAREHOUSE!

It’s a  humungous warehouse (1000++ sq.m) FILLED WITH RELIEF GOODS UP TO THE ROOFTOP, with only ONE DSWD employee and ONE security guard in the area.

It was required to register and schedule to volunteer in this prestigious warehouse.

1) UNICEF Registration (as a volunteer)

The warehouse can only take as much as 50 volunteers at a time or per shift. Here you will find that there is a 4-hour shift, and an option for a 6-hour shift for the volunteers to indicate their availability.

What “volunteers”? Where are they?

Aside from the 8 of us? Nope, there was nobody there. Why the need for scheduling?
I know somebody who wanted to volunteer many times. She was always bumped off, they kept on rescheduling because “there were too many volunteers”. And volunteering can only be done on a Sunday, they said. What the hell is going on here?

The local and international donations from UNICEF are just in that warehouse, rotting away.
There should at least be straw/bamboo mats that the victims could be sleeping on now. Imported camp beds that the victims probably won’t even get to see. Bedsheets and blankets that won’t ever warm their bodies. And food that will never reach their stomachs.

The relief goods are not going anywhere.

We arrived at about 8 am and left by midafternoon and yes, you guessed it right. Aside from that one DSWD employee, the eight of us were the only volunteers in that warehouse all afternoon. No one else came.

The relief goods are not moving. By the way things look, they are not going anywhere. These relief goods won’t be walking by themselves to evacuation centers.

LET THE PICTURES DO THE TALKING

Note: They actually told us not to take any pictures in the warehouse. I wonder why.

“Not a creature was moving, not even a mouse.”

The warehouse looks haunted. A ghost possibly lurks in the shadows.

With all the stacked up woks, it looks even better than Divisoria [Metro Manila central market]

And the neverending pots…

Boxes stacked up so high they cover all the windows…

Boxes reaching the ceiling

(Close up of Coleman camp beds in previous photo) These weren’t included in the repacked goods.

Are these for the “special victims” , you think???Will these “imported” camp pads ever be repacked at all?

After all, these are the straw/bamboo mats for the “ordinary victims”.  These we did repack.

And what are these? Are these going to special victims as well? We did not get to open these.

Magic boxes from Japan Aid.

(close up of magic box from japan) These were not included, of course. “Imported” are not included, we have concluded.

There are a lot of these giant toys that we weren’t able to take pictures of because they were right next to the security guard.

PORK AND BEANS? Yup, you’d think we’d be including this in the relief bag. It’s just Pork and beans, we can give that away!

Naaah! These are “imported” pork and beans from Spain. So, sorry, these are still not included!

Now let’s take a look at what a victim will get from DSWD

Look Ma, ten cans of sardines! How generous! In the first sack went the big pot. Laundry soap and 10 cans of sardines underneath.

9 bars of bath soap were positioned to the side of the pot. All local goods, OF COURSE.

They were topped off with a towel and a pack of sanitary napkin.

Then  3 pieces of blankets(?) were rolled into the blue water jug which  then went on top of the pot and into the sack.

Last but not the least,  2 bamboo/straw mats.

then  the sacks were sewn shut. Now, doesn’t it feel like you’ve thrown those flood victims a bone?? Wou

ldn’t they get so full from all those sardines!!!!!!

DO NOT DELAY

YOU THINK?? WTF is the matter with these people? It’s been a month since the tragedy with all the victims still not recovered and will possibly take years to recover from this. They have NOTHING. ONE MONTH. Do these people mean “do not delay the stuff thats already BEEN DELAYED?? Shet.

What are these donations still doing in the warehouse?? There were FOUR WAREHOUSES in that compound. FOUR WAREHOUSES filled to the brim with relief goods gathering dust! Relief goods that they refuse to give to the victims. Gosh, can they be any more obvious??

Even more things to come (and rot)

Wow! Another shipment? At the rate DSWD is moving, it’ll be the year 2010 before we find out what’s inside all those boxes.

“The first of two of the largest high-energy food shipments from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) arrived in the country two days ago for victims of storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng.”

The biscuits were fortified with essential vitamins and minerals for supplementary feeding to children, pregnant women and the elderly in evacuation camps. Another 100 tons of biscuits will arrive on Oct. 24, in a continuing effort to provide food assistance to flood victims.

Fine, bring it straight to the DSWD warehouse. So that the biscuits will get all moldy… and gather cobwebs.

Conclusion

For that whole afternoon that we spent in the warehouse, we were able to complete 150 sacks of relief goods. That’s 150 bags of relief goods that went out of the warehouse that day. The rest, including the magical imported relief goods remained safe , sound and packed as the day they arrived.

We hitched a ride from one of the DSWD delivery vans  coming out of the compound. The driver wanted to drive us all the way to Makati but he said he didn’t have enough gas. There were millions of dollars in donations, and not a single peso for gasoline.

Maybe… just maybe we’ll find out what are in those magical imported boxes… maybe the mystery will unravel… come ELECTION DAY. OR those very same goods would be mysteriously disappear, to be looted and appear in the streets of Divisoria and Quiapo… for sale.

A few suggestions to the DSWD:

# You very well know that you lack manpower/volunteers, so why don’t you hire people? Hire them to repack. There are so many people who are jobless, homeless, even. You’ll be doing them a favor. It would barely touch the billions donated that was received through your office.

# How many soldiers do we have? Can’t they do work like this? With that much manpower, it may only take one day, and your problems are solved.

# Why don’t you give the work to the NGOs, chuches, private charities, TV stations?  I’m sure they are more than willing to help. Time is of the essence. Don’t be greedy. Obviously, you can’t handle the work.

If you truly wanted those donations to reach the victims, you’d have done something already. There are so many ways that you could’ve remedied this lack-of-manpower situation…that is, if you wanted to remedy it.

You are the government. You have the power, the resources and the money. You just have to really care.