‘Checkpoints meant for orderly distribution of post-quake aid’

MANILA,Philippines — Authorities have set up checkpoints along major roads in Mindanao to process and screen donations to families affected and displaced by the recent earthquakes in the region.

National Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Ricardo Jalad said they put up Incident Command Posts (ICPs) to control the distribution of relief and donations.

Jalad said ICPs would prevent some dubious groups from taking advantage of the situation in the quake-ravaged areas to shame the government.

“It’s not yet validated, but the information coming from our troops, it is the New People’s Army (rebels),” Jalad said when asked who are the groups supposedly taking advantage of the dire situation of quake survivors.

This developed as 29 evacuees from Makilala in North Cotabato were taken to hospital last Monday for food poisoning.

Jalad said 10 of the evacuees were taken to the Cotabato Provincial Hospital, nine to the Kidapawan City Hospital and 10 as outpatients of a rural health unit in Makilala.

“They allegedly consumed donated foods sponsored by group of individuals from Midsayap town,” Jalad said.

The donated food, locally known as Patel, had its egg content already spoiled. They were partaken for lunch by the evacuees, Jalad said.

The food pack composed of rice, chicken, egg and wrapped in banana leaves came from the donation by a group of donors whom Jalad did not identify.

Jalad said the food poisoning incident is one of the reasons why they put up ICPs.

Jalad said the placard-bearing queue of people begging for food and relief along the roads and highways in North Cotabato appeared to have been organized and staged.

He said the groups begging for help knew that there are food distribution outlets in all evacuation areas where they can get their basic needs.

“They know where these ICPs are, where there are ample of stocks of food. They should have gone there. And why they’re in groups. If it were me, I will go solo and beg separately,” Jalad said.

The recent spate of earthquakes that rocked several areas in Mindanao had displaced thousands of families who are afraid to go back to whatever is left of their destroyed homes.

They are now dependent on local and national government agencies for their basic needs.  – With John Unson