A call was made by Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Rural Development Chairman Erwin Tulfo for the speedy distribution of food to disaster victims, such as those affected by the recent earthquake in Cebu before having them interviewed.
Tulfo’s call came after his personal visit to the areas severely affected by the 6.9 magnitude earthquake last week, where he saw victims temporarily staying on the roadsides and who were calling for food assistance.
The victims, according to the Senator, said that they had not yet received any aid from the government, prompting him to immediately relay the concern to the local officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the province.
“I saw personally that the agency’s food packs were piled up at a distribution site behind the Bogo City Hall because the people supposedly needed to be interviewed first,” Tulfo said, so that he immediately went to the DSWD relief operations head in the area to relay the people’s problem.”
The Senator said that the officials of the affected local government units (LGUs) also complained about the same problem.
“The mayors also made the same plea to us—that the DSWD should speed up the provision of food and water to the people, if possible,” said Tulfo, a former DSWD Secretary.
Explaining that the response to typhoon victims differs from that for earthquake victims, he said: “An earthquake is different from a typhoon. In a typhoon, you just run to an evacuation center, and you will be given food. Meanwhile, in an earthquake, no one goes to the evacuation center for fear that it might also collapse due to aftershocks.”
Meanwhile, Tulfo thanked DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian for his prompt response to the appeal of the mayors and earthquake victims in Cebu, after he brought the matter to the Secretary’s attention.
