G.I. sheets ready but DSWD OK slow

WITH delivery of the promised galvanized iron sheets for typhoon victims now coming at a fast clip from the Department of Public Works and Highways, the other main agency put in charge of rehabilitation of damaged houses in Pangasinan – the Department of Social Welfare and Development – appears overwhelmed by the job of disposing these with dispatch to “validated” recipients.

Dagupan City, one of the very first local government units to submit its list of totally damaged houses based on DSWD guidelines, received its first 2,000 G.I sheets late last week from the DPWH after DSWD’s approval and validation of the list.

The roofing materials were for 386 families in some 10 barangays – barely a third of the city’s 31 villages. These were released by the DPWH 2nd Engineering District thru Regional Director Fidel Ginez to a team led by City Adminstrator Alvin Fernandez.

The only other local government units with already validated partial releases, according to DSWD Regional Director Margarita Sampang, were Bugallon, Infanta and Calasiao.

Sampang said by their own validation, 24 towns in Pangasinan were heavily affected.

The G.I sheets are part of the P500M worth of sheets pledged by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to typhoon Cosme victims in the province when she first came to the province on May 23.

The President herself presided over the initial distribution of the first batch of G.I sheets in barangay Portic, Bugallon last June 4, two weeks and a half after the May 17 devastation.

As this developed, Sampang parried off observations in local government and media commentaries that the DSWD process was “slow.”

“We are not mabagal but mabilis (fast). Magiisang buwan pa lang naman (Its just barely a month) since the typhoon, she told radio audience in an interview yesterday.

Sampang said her field workers are working overtime to check out affected communities assisted by municipal engineers and even by DPWH staff.

She also confirmed the DSWD criteria for a G.I sheet assistance – widely criticized as “unfair” and “inconsiderate” by many poor typhoon victims – that no matter how damaged a house may have been if it is already “roofed” even if only temporarily and thru makeshift materials by the time the DSWD local officer comes around, it will not be included in the list.

Many squatter families said this “ruling” does not consider the fact that people have to put something or anything over their shanties and huts to shield them from the sun’s heat and periodic rains by day and the cold mist by night.

If their efforts to “survive” temporarily become their disqualification for aid, they said it is “grossly unfair.”

“Antoy labay da, manpaagew, manpaoran kami ed panaalagar no kapigan onsabin maninspeksyon tay sosyal welpeyr? (What do they want us to do, go without any kind of cover and suffer under the sun and rain while waiting for the social worker to visit?)