Call for probe into Philippine disaster funds distribution

Manila: A lawmaker has called for a Congressional inquiry into the manner in which relief was given out to calamity victims in Northern Mindanao.

Representative Winnie Castelo of the second congressional district of suburban Quezon City said a probe into how cash donations and relief goods from local and foreign donors had been distributed to the victims of typhoon Washi is necessary to hammer out protocol in aid distribution.

In the aftermath of the disastrous floods that hit Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in December, the international community, Filipino donors in the Philippines and abroad joined hands to provide relief to calamity victims.

Castelo said the Philippines owes it to the international and local aid donors to see to it that the donations were spent and distributed properly and were given out to the real victims of the calamity.

"There has to be an accounting of every donation to ensure that the humanitarian act is realized beyond reproach," Castelo said.

Castelo authored House Resolution 2062, a measure which seeks to determine the methodology in which the typhoon victims got the cash donations and relief goods.

The lawmaker urged the House Committee on Social Services to conduct an immediate inquiry to determine the needed legislative measures that will guide the agency or agencies responsible for the speedy and swift delivery of donated goods to the recipient-victims.

Castelo said cash donations and relief goods from local and foreign donors started pouring in following the onslaught of Washi. Private foundations, government agencies, commercial networks, and private institutions served as conduits in the distribution of relief goods.

"While some of these channels made public the amount of cash donations that they had put together, they are silent as to whether every centavo of the donation was expended for its purpose," Castelo said.

Castelo also took note of a report made by the Commission Audit (COA) which reported that as of December 31, 2010 some 193.6 million pesos (Dh1,685,1011) cash donations from various sources remain unused, "defeating the objective for which the assistance was provided and resulting further in the accumulation of huge balances."

Earlier on, Senator Loren Legarda, head of the senate panel on Climate Change, urged authorities to strictly monitor how assistance is being used by local and national authorities.

Legarda, said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) should tightly monitor how government agencies are allocating the donations from abroad "to ensure that resources benefit targeted victim communities in affected areas."

Washi had affected 789 villages in 56 municipalities, eight cities and 13 provinces.

Among the most seriously affected were the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan and Northern Mindanao where flashfloods had massive inundation caused deaths to 1,257 people and untold difficulties to some 700,000 residents, mostly impoverished Christians as well as Muslims living in riverside communities.