Daanbantayan ex-mayor, DSWD officer held liable

The Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas has ordered the suspension of former Daanbantayan town mayor Augusto Corro and a social welfare officer for not following the proper guidelines in determining the list of families entitled to receive cash aids after Super Typhoon Yolanda devastated the municipality and other parts of the Visayas in 2013.

Corro and Heide Aplece were found guilty of simple negligence.

Since Corro is no longer holding any government position, the penalty will be converted to a fine equivalent to his two-month salary, said graft investigation and prosecution officer Vincent Del Albeos in a resolution approved by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

Aplece, still a social welfare officer of the town, shall serve the suspension imposed against her.

Cebu Daily News contacted Corro, but he begged off from issuing any statement, saying he was still out of the country.

The issue stemmed from a complaint filed by Renato Benatiro, who claimed he was earlier among 16,613 beneficiaries supposed to receive the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) from the government.

Families whose houses were destroyed by the super typhoon would receive P30,000 while those whose dwellings were damaged would get P10,000.

However, the municipal government revalidated the list of beneficiaries after it received a directive from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to disqualify those living in “unsafe or no-build zones.”

Benatiro’s name still appeared on the updated list but with a remark that his house was located in an “unsafe zone” hence he was not entitled to receive the ESA.

The complainant said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Mines and Geosciences Bureau had declared that his house was not within the danger zone.

In his counter-affidavit submitted to the anti-graft office, Corro defended the revalidation of the list and insisted that the complainant was not qualified to receive the ESA.

He said the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Recovery and Rehabilitation came out with a 40-meter no-build zone policy which was used by the Municipality of Daanbantayan as basis in identifying danger/unsafe zones.

The Ombudsman, however, stressed that the respondents did not follow the proper procedure set by DSWD.

In classifying certain areas as safe/unsafe, Albeos said the respondents should have used the town’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and multi-hazard maps.

“Respondents may have acted in good faith in revalidating the original list. But it is also undeniable that the procedures adopted were flawed due to their inattentiveness to the proper guidelines,” the anti-graft investigator said.