Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Tuesday assured members of the Senate that he will not run for senator in the midterm elections in 2025.
This was after Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go blasted Gatchalian during a public hearing of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Development for allegedly using DSWD assistance for his political agenda.
"Senator, I am not running for the Senate. In fact, I have even wrote all public polling firms to remove me from the list. I have communicated that several times," Gatchalian said.
Go was referring to a reported delayed distribution of Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) in General Santos City which he said, was only disbursed when Gatchalian went to the city after it was struck by a powerful earthquake late last year.
"You check your records. General Santos City, meron silang validated list. Napakatagal na nilang nag-antay. Ilang buwan silang nag-antay doon. Pagdating mo doon, okay, released. Doblehin mo. So ibig sabihin, pabor-pabor (They have a validated list. They have waited for so long, for how many months. When you arrived there, it was released and was doubled. So meaning, you are being selective)," Go said.
"Ang ni-release ko doon was Emergency Cash Transfer that's why the amount was bigger. Hindi po ako nag-release ng AICS (Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation). In fact, the mayors came to me. We met there with the governor, Emergency Cash Transfer po yung doble na sinasabi ninyo (What I released was Emergency Cash Transfer that's why the amount was bigger. I did not release AICS. In fact, the mayors came to me. We met there with the governor, Emergency Cash Transfer po yung doble na sinasabi ninyo (the double that you were saying)," Gatchalian replied.
According to the DSWD website, AICS provides medical assistance, burial, transportation, education, food, or financial assistance for other support services or needs of a person or family while Emergency Cash Transfer is an adaptive strategy of the DSWD in bridging the gap between immediate disaster relief, humanitarian response and early recovery support in disasters and emergency by providing unconditional cash assistance to disaster-affected families.
The DSWD chief also admitted that the agency encountered some difficulties in its own Financial Management Office resulting in cash shortfalls in some of its regional offices.
Gatchalian assured that they are addressing the problem and will have a clean list by the second quarter of this year.
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