The Department of Social Welfare and Development  (DSWD) welcomes the probe on the buried relief goods in Dagami, Leyte which is being pressed by Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said that she is open to any investigation that would give the Department the opportunity to clarify the issue.

“As I have said, there are personnel in the Department that have been negligent in their jobs to keep the relief goods in good condition. We are not washing hands on this, we will establish the liability of the persons involved here and make them accountable, in accordance with civil service rules,”  Sec. Soliman said.

The Secretary said that the buried goods were intended for the survivors of Typhoons Ruby and Glenda.

She reiterated that the goods were already unfit for human consumption.

“Our goal here was to make sure that the goods will not reach the affected families anymore. That is why these were disposed of immediately,” Sec. Soliman said.

“We are now putting in place several reforms to enhance our warehousing capability and handling of relief goods to ensure that a similar incident will not happen again,”  Sec. Soliman said.

She assured that the result of DSWD’s own investigation on the issue will be made public.  ###