Gan seeks probe into list of housing beneficiaries

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

COUNCILOR Leon Gan has called on the Cagayan de Oro Multi-Sectoral Task Force Shelter to look into allegations that some families from Misamis Oriental have become beneficiaries of city hall’s relocation program for typhoon Sendong survivors.

Gan, chairman of the city council’s urban poor committee, said there were reports that some of the relocation program beneficiaries were nonesidents of the city and come from towns in the province.

“They have to verify this considering that we still have more than 3,000 families waiting to avail of the housing program of the city government. If the report is true, then that is very unfair to the typhoon victims in the city,” he said.

Neither did the councilor named any beneficiary supposedly from Misamis Oriental nor say exactly where his information came from.

Gan proposed that the task force conduct an inventory and check the identities of the beneficiaries of the shelter program in Canitoan, Indahag, Pagatpat, and Balubal.

Ermin Pimentel, the chairman of the task force, said his group would look into the allegations.

“We need to verify this report,” Pimentel said.

He said the program is dependent on the official list of 2011 Sendong survivors from city hall’s Estate Management Division. The same list is being used by the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Florissa Sabuga-a, acting chief of the EMD, dismissed the allegations that families from Misamis Oriental towns became beneficiaries of the housing program.

Sabuga-a said those with doubts can simply go over the records on beneficiaries.

“Our records are here, and we welcome any investigation. Dako kana og bakak tungod kay when we started processing their papers, we asked them to show their papers issued by the DSWD regional office,” she said. “Walay taga-Misamis Oriental ana. Mao kana’y klaro.”