Let’s face it, we still need help in dealing with the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda—and we need it fast.
“Elation turned to horror for typhoon survivors in Barangay Gacao in Palo, Leyte, when maggots crawled out of the food packs that were distributed to them as relief,” report Marvin T. Modelo, Maricel V. Cruz, and Joyce Pangco Pañares in Manila Standard Today.
According to barangay chairman Panchito Cortez, people had converged at the barangay hall to receive food packs delivered by the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office of Palo. However, as the report revealed, “worms as big as grains of rice crawled out of tetra packs and cup noodles. Biscuits were expired, and even the bottled mineral water looked murky.”
Cortez confronted MSWD officer Rosalina Balderas, who admitted that the goods came from their office. However, she said she “didn’t know the food was already spoiled and infested with worms.”
Moreover, in another interview with the Manila Standard Today, Balderas admitted that truckloads of expired and spoiled food aid were, indeed, dumped and buried in an open dumpsite in Barangay. San Jose on Feb 5 and Mar 6.
RELATED: Post-Yolanda scenario: Social workers claim truckloads of expired food were buried
However, Palo, Leyte Mayor Remedios Petilla, in an interview with another news agency, “admitted that four sacks of rice, four sacks of assorted biscuits, one-fourth sack of canned goods, three sacks and two boxes of used clothing, three sacks of used shoes and 10 pieces of instant noodles were indeed buried in the dump.” She emphasized, though, that the goods dumped didn’t come by the truckloads as reported.
Petilla, by the way, is the mother of Department of Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla.
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