A ‘Philippine News’ exclusive

MANILA – Who will feed and clothe the hundreds of thousands of victims of typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy? Not the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) which is barely moving when it is expected to be running on overdrive.

Hundreds of millions of pesos worth of relief goods donated by the Unicef, as well as the governments of Japan, Spain and the US, among other donor countries, are lying dormant in the warehouses of the DSWD, “Philippine News” learned this week.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that the DSWD should be the government agency tasked with distributing the donated goods. Otherwise, they would be subject to donors’ tax.

Over the weekend, a small group of volunteers headed for a DSWD warehouse in Metro Manila. What they saw shocked them.

Instead of a warehouse teeming with fellow volunteers processing the goods for immediate deployment, the group of eight young men and women found themselves with only a single DSWD employee and one security guard.

“These clothes, food and blankets will not move themselves,” one of the volunteers said. “Why isn’t the government making their distribution a priority?”

The size of the warehouse is estimated at more than a thousand square meters with much of its floor area occupied by all kinds of goods, from cans of pork and beans, to Coleman camp beds, to bath soap. There were also cooking utensils and blankets. The only non-essential items were boxes of toys, clearly intended for the countless young kids who may not be fully aware why they had lost everything they owned following a single day of rains.

To the average Filipino, the contents of the warehouse would qualify as luxury items. There were none of the millions of packs of low-cost instant noodles that had been donated by countless companies and individuals ever since the humanitarian crisis began after Ondoy struck last month, and which have become the daily fare of the victims in the relief centers.

Working more than eight hours on their day off, the volunteers were able to repack 150 sacks. They were hardly able to make a dent on the sheer volume of the donated goods.

What they had repacked was set aside, with no one to take care of delivery.

Outside the warehouse was a driverless truck with a sign saying: “Do not delay.” The guard told them that there was “no money for gasoline for the truck.”

“Philippine News” managed to get hold of  Social Works Secretary Esperanza Cabral’s assistant, who said they “lacked volunteers.” The assistant said Cabral was busy and could not comment.

A member of her staff, however, said that the non-movement of relief goods from abroad was "a sensitive issue."

The volunteers were earlier told that taking pictures of the warehouse and its contents was not allowed. Out of concern for their security, “Philippine News” is keeping their identities secret.

In the eight-odd hours that they were there, the volunteers were not fed either. Nor were they taken out to a safe place when they were done. The warehouse is located in a relatively inaccessible place and is one of four known to be DSWD property housing all the goods given by foreign donors to the Philippines in the last few weeks.

It is not known if this bottleneck in the DSWD’s distribution system is intentional or not. The lack of manpower may be a reason that the goods are not being processed. But the eight volunteers are but a small fraction of the tens of thousands of Filipinos young and old who are willing to help in whatever way they can.

“Mobilizing all the volunteers they need is so easy,” one of the volunteers said, “Literally thousands of high school and college students would be perfectly willing to help.”

The 120,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines can also be tapped, she said.

At worst, there are tens of thousands of jobless Filipinos who can be paid the minimum wage who can be contracted to repack the goods.

Filipinos have a saying, “aanhin pa ang damo kapag patay na ang kabayo?” or what good is the grass if the horse is already dead?

The head of the eight-man volunteer group said they were eager and excited to help when they first headed for the warehouse. By the time they left, they were angry and depressed.

“There is no sense of urgency on the part of the DSWD. Even if it was a Saturday, it’s no excuse. The DSWD should be operating 24/7 to repack and send those goods to where they are most needed,” he said, “Everything inside that warehouse should be used to alleviate the suffering of thousands.”

The DSWD is not even moving at a turtle’s pace, but appears to be sleeping on the job. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of typhoon victims continue to suffer.