DSWD Disowns “Tacloban Relief Hub” Video

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman clarifies that the warehouse shown in the video taken by a television network and published on its online news portal on March 27 is not the DSWD Relief Hub in Tacloban City.

“Our hubs, especially the one in Tacloban City, are not in disarray. I know this because I was there on March 25 to accompany Australian Ambassador Bill Tweddell and Spanish Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo,” Soliman said.

Soliman recalled that they even repacked goods at the hub.

“The next day, representatives of the United Nations World Food Programme (UN-WFP) likewise visited there. Hence, it is impossible that you will find our hub to be disorderly. We in fact have Cash-for-Work (CFW) program for locals in the area to keep the hubs clean,” Soliman added.

The video footage showed the ‘Yolanda‘ relief hub in Tacloban and then segued to snapshots of scattered and unkempt relief goods.

DSWD has already requested the network to provide more information on where the warehouse is located so that corresponding investigation can be done.

“For the sake of truth and our own information, we insist that they let us know where this is, so our department can act on their allegations of mishandling of relief goods,” she said.

She reiterated that DSWD has been conducting investigations on all reports about the relief goods distributed to ‘Yolanda’ survivors and the warehouses that it maintains.

Image Credit: www.dswd.gov.ph