Palace admits some victims not getting relief goods
  • 5 years ago
MANILA - Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras defended Wednesday the alleged slow distribution of relief goods to all towns affected by super typhoon "Yolanda" (Haiyan). Speaking to reporters, Almendras described the process of bringing relief items to typhoon victims as a "huge production line" that involved repacking the goods, transporting and distributing to victims. "There has never been anything at the magnitude of what we are trying to do now. Not in size, not in volume, not even the breadth of it. The logistics alone - we discussed over 2 and a half hours how to move the goods, where to move goods, how many trucks we need from packing center to shipping center. It is not a small amount of work that needs to be done," he said. He said over 65,000 food packs have been distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Tacloban and other typhoon-hit areas. Almendras said DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman is now in Ormoc, Leyte to set up a logistics center that will handle the distribution of goods in Southern Leyte towns. He said more repacking centers are being set up to accelerate the processing of goods. The Cabinet official admitted that some victims have yet to receive relief goods from the government. He said the national government is trying to address the problem of lack of personnel in the LGUs by getting DSWD personnel from Mindanao to help in the distribution. "The decision was if local government does not have resources for logistics process, the national government will come in," he said. Meanwhile, Almendras said most of the foreign aid for "Yolanda" victims have yet to reach the Philippines. He said some of the items are not necessarily relief items but support equipment and goods for emergency teams. "They are self contained. They will feed themselves and operate on their own without resources from us," he said. He said the only foreign relief goods that are ready for distribution came from Taiwan. These items will be brought to Ormoc, he said.