EDITORIAL - Waiting for aid

The waiting lines began forming as early as Thursday, from young adults to the elderly. By Friday, the early birds who refused to leave the premises had drawn an even bigger crowd, all of them waiting for livelihood assistance that was supposed to be doled out by the National Capital Region office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

DSWD-NCR personnel said no such aid distribution was scheduled for the week. Forms, however, were distributed to the waiting crowd, apparently with the misunderstanding that the people were applying for livelihood loans. A woman who waited from Thursday to Friday complained in a TV interview that she was made to fill out two different forms on the two days, and expressed suspicion that it was meant merely to disperse the crowd.

Surely there must have been a better way to get that dispersal done as early as Thursday, and to communicate clearly to the ever growing line of people that the distribution of livelihood assistance was fake news.

It was not the first time that a large crowd had descended on a DSWD office in hopes of getting assistance, only to be disappointed. In August last year, chaos erupted when a massive crowd swarmed the DSWD central office after it was announced that P500 million worth of financial aid would be given to indigent students. The chaos was attributed to “miscommunication.”

The source of the story that sent people to the DSWD-NCR office beginning last Thursday has yet to be established. If it was another case of miscommunication, the DSWD will need to fine-tune its protocols for disseminating information especially on matters of aid distribution. There are both physical and digital ways of ensuring that the public will get only accurate information about badly needed ayuda or aid.

Authorities must also try to determine if the fake news was deliberately disseminated by some sick minds. If this was the case, the perpetrators must be ferreted out and penalized. The state has some capability to do this. Even rumor mongering can be traced through an efficient barangay network.

This type of malicious mischief not only sabotages critical government work but can also cause physical injuries to the needy who are hoping for state assistance. The poor are miserable enough without being victimized by saboteurs or lowlifes who find amusement in other people’s misery.