Dwayne Pelagio

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian denied the allegations of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) that his agency turned down referrals from the office.

Photo Courtesy of DSWD.

Gatchalian addressed the allegations during the Senate’s finance subcommittee’s deliberation on the DSWD’s proposed 2025 budget on Oct. 14.

He stated in the hearing that the agency does not politicize helping people and the ones responsible for extending assistance are the licensed social workers, which means their licenses are at risk if they politicize helping others in need.

Gatchalian mentioned that they don’t have any record of the agency denying anyone’s request.

"With me is Assistant Secretary Ulysses Aguilar, he's the one that handles the referrals from the Office of the Vice President. Agad-agad kinausap niya 'yung handling officer sa kabila, si Director Norman. Kasi tinanong namin sa kanya ano ba 'yung issue para alam namin ano 'yung titingnan," Gatchalian said in the deliberation, pertaining to OVP Director for Operations Norman Baloro.

The DSWD secretary added that Baloro has no idea about the issue since all referrals have been accommodated by the agency.

Gatchalian also said in his statement that he will ask Baloro for his consent to furnish the screenshots of their conversation.

"We'll also submit to the committee a copy of a plaque that we just received, middle part of this year from the OVP saying nga that we are a valued partner, that we would always help their referrals,” the DSWD secretary added.

The Senate finance subcommittee’s deliberation approval on the DSWD’s proposed 2025 budget has been deferred to give time for the agency’s submission of reports on other issues.

Baloro released a statement on Oct. 15, saying that the claim by Gatchalian that the DSWD has accommodated all referrals from the OVP is inaccurate and misleading.

“An example of this was a request for assistance to an identified group of individuals whose livelihood were affected due to the African Swine Flu virus,” Baloro said in his statement.

The OVP Director for Operations also said that there are “clear evidences” that different satellite offices of the OVP that some clients referred to by the OVP have been left unattended by regional offices of the DSWD, with 7,056 pending applications for the Assistance for Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) and 2,597 pending applications for the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) referred by the OVP Panay and Negros Islands Satellite Office to the DSWD Field Office-VI.

“We call for DSWD’s immediate action to address these gaps and fulfill the government’s obligation to provide aid to every Filipino,” he said in his statement.

The said allegations came from Vice President Sara Duterte’s claims during a Senate budget hearing in August that the DSWD rejected some of her office’s referrals because they were tagged as “enemies.”