Yolanda victim picket DSWD, assail MC 24
Iloilo city
February 20, 2015
Members of Pamanggas Kmp-panay, a peasant alliance on Panay and Guimaras islands, trooped today at the DSWD-6 regional office, Iloilo City, to talk with Regl Dir. Evelyn Macapobre.
They are on their 5th and last day of their camp out at the DSWD-6 office pressing for immediate and unconditional release of the Emergency Shelter Assistance for Yolanda victims whose houses were damaged totally or partially.
Yolanda lashed the Visayas November 8, 2013 destroying more than 400,000 houses partially or totally with the fury of 250kph winds in five of the six provinces in W. Visayas.
Guimaras was spared but five other provinces -- Negros Occidental, Capiz and Aklan, the northern part of Antique, northern and central Iloilo sustained losses.
Pamanggas protesters though bewailed that through the promised grant from the national government -- P30T for each totally damaged house and P10T for one partially destroyed -- which is insufficient, is further hampered by delay and the latest bureaucratic caper, Memorandum Circular 24 that excludes from coverage the bulk of the victims.
"The grant promised by government is already miniscule and long delayed as they are and now here comes Memorandum Circular 24," bewailed Cris Chavez, Pamanggas Secretary General.
DSWD-6 Director Macapobre assured them she will endorse their grievances to the national office but declined to argue against the policy set by her superiors.
MC 24 excludes from the housing assistance victims who each earns P15T and above, monthly, those already beneficiaries of NGO relief groups, and those whose houses are in danger zones i.e. on slide-prone slopes or those inside the 40-meter meter from the shoreline.
"They were down on their knees after Yolanda: their houses were destroyed and so was their means of survival," notes Chavez. "MC 24 is just unjust."
People live on danger zones, that is, on shores and slopes due to poverty and for being landless.
The protesters came from Capiz, Aklan and central and northern Iloilo.
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February 20, 2015
Members of Pamanggas Kmp-panay, a peasant alliance on Panay and Guimaras islands, trooped today at the DSWD-6 regional office, Iloilo City, to talk with Regl Dir. Evelyn Macapobre.
They are on their 5th and last day of their camp out at the DSWD-6 office pressing for immediate and unconditional release of the Emergency Shelter Assistance for Yolanda victims whose houses were damaged totally or partially.
Yolanda lashed the Visayas November 8, 2013 destroying more than 400,000 houses partially or totally with the fury of 250kph winds in five of the six provinces in W. Visayas.
Guimaras was spared but five other provinces -- Negros Occidental, Capiz and Aklan, the northern part of Antique, northern and central Iloilo sustained losses.
Pamanggas protesters though bewailed that through the promised grant from the national government -- P30T for each totally damaged house and P10T for one partially destroyed -- which is insufficient, is further hampered by delay and the latest bureaucratic caper, Memorandum Circular 24 that excludes from coverage the bulk of the victims.
"The grant promised by government is already miniscule and long delayed as they are and now here comes Memorandum Circular 24," bewailed Cris Chavez, Pamanggas Secretary General.
DSWD-6 Director Macapobre assured them she will endorse their grievances to the national office but declined to argue against the policy set by her superiors.
MC 24 excludes from the housing assistance victims who each earns P15T and above, monthly, those already beneficiaries of NGO relief groups, and those whose houses are in danger zones i.e. on slide-prone slopes or those inside the 40-meter meter from the shoreline.
"They were down on their knees after Yolanda: their houses were destroyed and so was their means of survival," notes Chavez. "MC 24 is just unjust."
People live on danger zones, that is, on shores and slopes due to poverty and for being landless.
The protesters came from Capiz, Aklan and central and northern Iloilo.
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