MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:14 p.m.) — The Office of Civil Defense on Friday maintained that donations for victims of Marawi siege are not missing after state auditors flagged the agency’s “poor utilization” of aid for those affected by the security crisis.
In its 2018 report, Commission on Audit said a balance of P36,910,725 was left unspent out of P36,920,725 total donations received as of end-December last year.
State auditors added that out of nearly P37 million funds, the OCD only spent P10,000 as “financial assistance” for a sole beneficiary of a dead victim of the Marawi battle.
In a statement, the OCD said the reason for the low utilization of the donated funds is that the agency was instead utilizing its Quick Response Fund “to ensure expeditious delivery of services to the victims of Marawi.”
It added that “initial utilization” of donated funds, including a P1 million support for a project for the Ramadan holiday on June 5, was not reflected in the COA report.
“We would like to assure the public that the funds for the victims of the Marawi siege in the amount of P36.91 million from various donors are still with the OCD and are not missing,” the OCD said.
“We are also in the process of identifying specific projects by any implementing agency which can be funded or augmented with the said donated funds,” it added.
“As of this date, the total funding requirement for this year’s project is in the amount of P10 billion for which the NDRRM Funds only has about P8 billion available. Hence, that P36.91 million donated funds will certainly be utilized,” it continued.
In May 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law in the restive southern region of Mindanao on the day the principal Islamic city of Marawi was stormed by heavily-armed homegrown extremists who pledged allegiance to ISIS.
After five months of fighting, Duterte declared Marawi liberated from extremists. But fixing the city has been repeatedly delayed.
How the OCD could have utilized the fund
According to a June 23, 1998 memorandum order, financial assistance amounting to P10,000 must be granted to the families of dead disaster victims and P5,000 for the injured. The funding for the assistance will be sourced from donations.
The financial aid can only be availed if claims are filed and are supported by documents — a process that the COA said “could be very burdensome for some victims” and “could be one of the causes of low utilization of the donated funds.”
“The poor utilization of the donated funds defeated the purpose of donation and that the good intention of the donors for human consideration was not fully served,” the COA said.
In the same statement on Friday, the OCD said it had given instructions to its regional offices to “assist in every possible way the victims of natural disasters and/or human-induced hazards in the processing of required documents.”
“The documents being required from the beneficiaries are necessary for the liquidation of the Accountable Officers,” it said. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral