Due to circulating reports on spoiled goods distributed in Marawi evacuation centers, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) clarified that all batches of relief items delivered and distributed to internally-displaced individuals (IDPs) in Marawi City were assured of good quality by an Inspectorate Committee.

Based on the report from its Field Office (FO) in Region XII, the Department found out that the issue on spoiled goods was possibly in reference to the dried fish previously distributed as a substitute for the canned sardines and corned beef provided to the evacuees in order to address their request for variety of relief supply.

The DSWD FO-XII guaranteed the public that they have already replaced the goods and noted that the limited expiration date and moisture accumulation due to the means of packaging of the dried fish might have prompted the spoilage of the said food items while unconsumed.

“We would like to reiterate that the goods that we are distributing to the IDPs in Marawi are of good quality. However, there are times that due  to the mishandling of goods during delivery, these are damaged resulting to spoilage. We ask the IDPs to immediately return all spoiled and unconsumed food items nearing expiry to the DSWD XII for replacement,” DSWD Assistant Secretary for the Office of the Secretary Glenda Relova said.

Asec. Relova assured that all relief distribution will continue as scheduled and that the DSWD Central Office together with the Field Offices will be implementing stricter monitoring of relief supplies to ensure that similar incident will not occur in the future. ###