COA calls out OCD over unused Yolanda, Marawi donations

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has called out the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) over its failure to utilize funds amounting to P77.887 million received from local and foreign donors for the victims of Super-typhoon Yolanda and the Marawi siege.

Based on the COA’s annual audit report on the OCD, the agency received a total of P135,391,701.96 in donations from “local and foreign sources” for the victims of Yolanda, considered the strongest typhoon that hit the country in recent history.

Of this amount, only 69.77 percent or P94.465 million was utilized as of Dec. 31, leaving a balance of P40.976 million, the COA said in its report.

The fund, according to the audit body, had even incurred a gain on foreign exchange revaluation amounting to P5.648 million. Thus, the total balance of OCD’s Yolanda fund now amounts to P46.674 million.

Yolanda made its first landfall over Guiuan, Eastern Samar in the early morning of Nov. 8, 2013, wreaking havoc in the entire Visayas region, until it exited the country the following day.

Based on the updated data provided by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in April 2014, Yolanda displaced a total of four million people, while the death toll reached 6,300.

The number of injured individuals stood at 28,869 with 1,061 still missing.

Marawi fund

Worse, the COA said that of the P36,920,725 in donations that the OCD received from various local and foreign sources for Marawi siege victims, only P10,000 was utilized, leaving a balance of P36.91 million.

“Out of the total donated funds of P36,920,725, only P10,000 was utilized as financial assistance to only one beneficiary of a dead victim of the Marawi siege. Clearly, the donations were not utilized to provide for the much-needed support of the Marawi siege victims,” the COA report read.

A breakdown provided in the report showed that the bulk of the donations came from the embassy of India, amounting to P25.57 million. Other big donors were the embassy of Thailand (P5.092 million), provincial government of Bulacan (P4 million), Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (P500,000) and several private individuals.

The COA pointed out that under the NDCC (now NDRRMC) Memorandum Order No. 13 dated June 23, 1998, the NDRRMC, a sub-agency of the OCD, can receive donations in cash or in kind from various government agencies and other sources, provided that the donations shall be “utilized for payment of financial assistance to victims of calamities.”

Under the memorandum order, the amount of financial assistance to be granted to the families of disaster victims shall be P10,000 for the dead and P5,000 for the injured, according to the COA.

“The poor utilization of the donated funds defeated the purpose of donation and the good intention of the donors for human consideration was not fully served,” the agency said.

It was in May 2017 when armed conflict erupted in Marawi, Lanao del Sur after the Islamic State-inspired local terrorist group Maute led by brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute laid siege to the city with the help of the Abu Sayyaf faction under Isnilon Hapilon, prompting President Duterte to place the entire Mindanao under martial law.

The battle between government troops and militant forces lasted until October of that year, leaving the city in ruins with about a thousand of people dead and more than 3,000 displaced.

The COA attributed the low utilization of the donations to the “very burdensome” documentary requirements, which discourage the disaster victims from availing themselves of financial assistance.

The COA noted that while the memorandum order states that claims are valid only within one year from the time of the occurrence of the disaster or calamity, multiple documents must be submitted by the claimants.

For injured persons, among the documents required are medical certificate from the hospital or clinic where the victim was confined for at least three days, local police report on the incident and endorsement for the payment of claims from the Local Disaster Coordinating Council (LDCC) chairman.

Meanwhile, for the kin of a dead person, the documents required are LDCC or police report on the incident, death certificate, certification from the barangay captain, proof of filial relationship with the victim and endorsement for the payment of claims from the LDCC chairman.

“The production of the documents alone could be very burdensome for some victims, which could be one of the causes of the low utilization of the donated funds,” the COA said.

The agency did not provide any recommendation in its report. There was also no reply from the OCD included in the report.