After a four-hour peaceful but emotional dialogue between officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the leaders of the Barug Katawhan, a group of “Pablo” victims who staged a protest in front of the DSWD office in Davao City on February 25 went home Thursday, February 28, bringing home with them 100 sacks of rice given by the provincial government of Compostela Valley and a signed agreement that resolved the 3-day standoff.
Agreements
The agreements are: there is a need for validation in every Purok/Sitio in the concerned barangay to determine inadequacy/insufficiency of relief goods received to be done in coordination with Barug Katawhan, Balsa Mindanao, concerned local government units and DSWD Region XI; the validation should immediately determine the total number of families who did not receive enough goods as basis for distribution of relief goods; the relief operation will be until June 2013; fasttrack the validation on the number of families, sitios, puroks in the barangays which did not receive sufficient relief goods with Barug Katawhan providing list if there are indeed areas which did not receive or which obtained inadequate relief goods.
It was also agreed that there will be no action for retaliation against each one and that should there be problems on the agreements only the signatories can discuss these. The signatories are leaders of Barug Katawhan namely Carlos Trangia, Cirila Anding, and Grace Curso; DSWD officials Assistant Secretary Camilo Gudmalin and Director Priscilla Razon ; Balsa Mindanao representatives Rev. Sarly Templado and Sr. Noime Degala; and environmentalist Francis Morales.
Seized goods
Meanwhile, upon the orders of Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, police forces seized the goods ransacked and stolen by members of the Barug Katawhan from the DSWD office in Davao City on February 26 for safekeeping at the Davao City Police Office Compound.
Upon inventory, the DSWD found that the stolen goods comprised of : 7591 family packs, 57 sacks of NFA rice, 80 boxes of nescafe, 594 boxes of noodles, 13 boxes of bar soap, 10 boxes of sardines, 16 boxes of beef loaf, nine reams of book papers (A4); two boxes of long folder, one box of milo, and three boxes of coin envelope.
Protracted relief operations
Contrary to claims of Barug Katawhan and other dissatisfied groups that relief operations will end in March, the DSWD said that it will continue to distribute relief goods subject to assessment of conditions of beneficiaries if they are already back to their normal social functioning. The DSWD added that the Cash-for-work as an early recovery intervention has already started as well as the provision of permanent shelters and livelihood for the victims’ rehabilitation.
Deceived rallyists
Reliable sources said that some rallyists disclosed they were not really aware about the protests being staged by Barug Katawhan.
“Ingon nila moapil mi sa selebrasyon sa edsa didto sa davao city pero pagkahuman sa selebrasyon gidala mi didto sa opisina sa DSWD.” (They told me to attend an event for the Edsa Celebration in Davao City, but after that short celebration they took us here at DSWD), one rallyist said.
“Ingon nila moapil mi maligo sa dagat pero gidala mi didto sa opisina sa DSWD.” (They told us to go swimming but they took us here at DSWD), another rallyist said.
“Gi ingnan mi nga si Mayor Duterte maghatag ug usa ka sako nga bugas nga kinahanglan nga personal namo na dawaton. Nahibal-an na lang namo nga naa diay protesta nga mahitabo sa gawas sa DSWD opisina,” (We were told that Mayor Duterte was giving one sack of rice which we should receive personally. It was late when we found out that a protest was being staged at the DSWD compound), another rallyist said.
The interviewed rallyists said that they want to go home but have no money for transportation. The local government of Davao provided buses that ferried the rallyists home.
The rallyists were said to come from Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental, Davao City and CARAGA Region. ### March 1, 2013 {DSWD-Social Marketing Service}
