SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Dinky
Soliman assured that Ormocanons will get their share of the Emergency Shelter
Assistance (ESA). The assurance was given to Mayor Ondo Codilla during his
visit to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Manila last Mar. 3
to personally follow up the release of the ESA to his constituents.
The delay in the release of ESA is due to the disparity in the number of beneficiaries submitted to the DSWD. The City Social Welfare and Development Office submitted a list of 26,541 damaged and 14,132 destroyed houses for a total of 40,673.
The figure was based on the Disaster Assistance and Family Access Card (Dafac) forms submitted by households, the deadline of which was on July 2014. But due to the clamor by thousands of Ormocanons who weren’t able to submit their Dafac forms on time, the local government unit (LGU) extended the deadline to Sept. 15 upon the approval of DSWD to accommodate more beneficiaries.
With the inclusion of new submissions along with the assessment of the actual state of houses, the number of beneficiaries was updated to 23,323 damaged and 29,029 destroyed homes for a total of 52,325. Families whose houses were destroyed by typhoon Yolanda should receive P30,000 each while those with homes that were damaged will get P10,000 each.
However, when the Office of the Presidential Assistant on Rehabilitation and Recovery approved the funds, it based the amount of P689,369,934.25 to the first beneficiary count of 40,673 instead of the new listing numbering 52,325. This posed a dilemma as the funds will not cover all the beneficiaries if the P30,000-P10,000 scheme is followed.
Mayor Codilla had to make a decision and proposed that P15,713.25 be given to each family with destroyed houses instead of P30,000 and P10,000 to those with damaged homes. His proposal is backed by a resolution from the Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) dated Feb. 13, 2015.
“Para namo, maayo na lang ang available na kuwarta bahinon sa tanan kay it is more reasonable and equitable,” ABC Ormoc Federation President Mariano Y. Corro said. All other barangay officials were unanimous in supporting Mayor Codilla’s proposal saying: “It’s better than nothing!”
During a meeting last Mar. 10 called by the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s Committee on Social Welfare, committee chairman Councilor Vincent Rama asked abut the legality of Mayor Codilla’s proposal, to which City Legal Officer Ivan Veralio replied: “It is just a proposal. It is up to the [DSWD] Secretary to consider if it is legally viable.”
Corro, who is a lawyer also answered Rama’s query by saying: “This [set of] guidelines is not embodied in a law. This is merely a memorandum circular issued by DSWD. Therefore, it can be changed by the Secretary.” He was referring to DSWD Memo No. 24 s. 2014 or the guidelines implementing the ESA.
DSWD Regional Director Nestor B. Ramos assured that Secretary Soliman has approved the proposal of Mayor Codilla in principle, reason why he advises the LGU to post beforehand the names of beneficiaries for review especially by those who are supposed to be in the list but who might be left out.
Mayor Codilla will call for a meeting with all barangay chairmen to prepare for the orderly release of the ESA. Ormoc’s 110 barangays are grouped into five clusters with each cluster having 22 villages.
The ESA will be given to the clusters one after the other based on priority through drawing of lots. In the same manner, lots will be drawn to determine the priority from among the 22 barangays from each cluster.
Beneficiaries will be required to bring their own community tax certificate as proof of residence in that barangay. Mayor Codilla wants the release of the ESA to be done by the barangay chairmen themselves to avoid “ghost” beneficiaries and political discrimination.
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