On Twitter, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman goes by the handle @dinkysunflower (complete with a cheerful profile photo), perhaps as a reference to her sunny disposition. However, we don’t know if she’s smiling over this.
“On Wednesday, Mar 12, angry Yolanda survivors from Eastern Visayas walked out of a meeting with Soliman to express their disgust over the government’s failure to provide them with adequate help,” report Rio N. Araja, Christine F. Herrera, and Maricel V. Cruz in Manila Standard Today.
The report explained that “Soliman triggered resentment when she blamed local government units for the lack of relief in many devastated barangays and towns four months after Yolanda flattened the provinces, and for the food aid that had to be buried because it had gone bad.” Moreover, Soliman also refused demands for immediate cash assistance of PHP40,000 for each survivor family.
READ: Post-Yolanda scenario: Social workers claim truckloads of expired food were buried
A few minutes into the meeting, Sister Elfleda Eslopor, a Benedictine nun and leader of the People Surge alliance of Yolanda survivors, told Soliman, “We have nothing to talk about. We thank you for inviting us to a dialogue.” She then walked out and others followed suit.
Later, Eslopor told the Manila Standard Today, “Of course, we will leave her. It’s useless. Is this basketball? She keeps on passing the responsibility to the local government.”
READ: Dinky asked why DSWD didn’t use PHP58million worth of rice
The report likewise revealed that “Soliman said that she expects people in Yolanda-hit areas to be already enrolled in a food-for-work program.” However, when Gabriela’s Emmi de Jesus asked her how many people had been enrolled in the program, Soliman replied, “We don’t know yet. We are still collating the data.”
Answers like that make people think you’re clueless. Surely, she could have given a ballpark figure?
