“Dinky Soliman rides on UN aid to cover up government's criminal negligence” – People Surge

By People Surge
February 14, 2014

TACLOBAN CITY – Victims of last year's Typhoon Yolanda today assailed Department of Social Welfare and Development Sec. Corazon “Dinky” Soliman for bragging over a US$6-million dollar aid from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and including it in the Aquino government's dole-out scheme.

“The problem with the DSWD is that it is claiming credit where it is not due,” said Sr. Edita Eslopor, a Benedictine nun and Chairperson of People Surge, an alliance of Yolanda survivors demanding justice. “With or without the Aquino government, and perhaps even better without the government, UNICEF would still have rendered humanitarian assistance. Dinky Soliman is merely riding on the UN aid to cover up the government's criminal negligence. What's more, such aid may not reach the victims; the government's conditional cash transfer scheme has for years been plagued with allegations of corruption.”

Sister Eslopor expressed outrage that the DSWD should be relying on the goodness of others for doing the government's responsibility, especially what it should have done immediately after the typhoon hit last Nov. 8.

“We thank the UNICEF for the humanitarian assistance. But the Aquino government should have rendered emergency cash assistance and other kinds of relief three months ago, not today. That is sheer criminal negligence. Does Dinky Soliman realize how many of the so-called most vulnerable – including pregnant women and malnourished children – have suffered for the past months, and may have died, because the government balked at releasing funds for the people while it was at the same time embroiled in the pork barrel scandal? For the past three months, the DSWD has not been carrying out any significant social amelioration program but has merely acted as the facilitator for foreign and local donors.

“Does Dinky Soliman realize how little the US$100 or P4,370 really is, even if good for six months, when a family of five in Eastern Visayas needs at least P610 every day to live decently, and that was in 2008?”

The People Surge spokesperson asserted that the Aquino government must render all possible emergency assistance, while planning for long-term solutions for the people's losses and grinding poverty. “The conditional cash transfer scheme or 4Ps to which Dinky Soliman and the DSWD are so devoted is nothing but a dole-out program. The people cannot survive for long on mendicancy.