DSWD Denies “Politicizing” Claim of Sara Duterte’s Office: “Lahat ‘yan tinutulungan natin”

Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s Office Claims DSWD Turned Down Its Referral

DSWD – The Department of Social Welfare and Development denied the “politicizing” claim of the office of Vice President Sara Duterte against them.

The deliberation of the 2025 budget proposal of the Office of the Vice President was controversial. Vice Pres. Sara Duterte got involved in a spar not only in the Senate but as well as in the House of Representatives.

Sara Duterte
Photo from OneNews.ph

Duterte did not like Senator Risa Hontiveros questioning her P10 million budget allotted for the book that the Vice President authored herself. The Senator also noticed that some of the assistance programs of the OVP are similar to the assistance programs of the other government agencies.

Hontiveros said she will make a motion for the re-allocation of the assistance program funds to the relevant agencies. The Vice President accused the government agencies of “politicizing”.

Sara Duterte 1
Photo Source: Youtube

According to Vice Pres. Duterte, the referrals for assistance requests of the OVP were rejected by some government agencies thus, they made their own assistance programs. Recently, her office named the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s office claimed that the DSWD turned down the assistance request of the OVP for the group of individuals affected by the African Swine Fever (ASF). The office of the Vice President claimed that the social welfare department reasoned out that they don’t do “mass payout” but, allegedly, the DSWD did it in other cases with other politicians.

DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian
Photo from Manila Standard

Recently, the DSWD broke its silence on the claim of the Office of the Vice President (OVP). Social welfare secretary Rex Gatchalian told TeleRadyo Serbisyo that their office is open for everyone and helps everyone who is in need.

“Ang aming tanggapan, nakabukas para sa lahat… May referral o wala, lahat ‘yan tinutulungan natin, basta mapatunayan na may pangangailangan,” Gatchalian said.

Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian stressed that the social welfare department is not politicizing and it is the social workers that assess the beneficiaries.

“Walang pinupulitika sa DSWD. Mga social workers natin ang sumusuri kung tutulungan o hindi, kung kailangan o hindi,” he said.

According to the social welfare department, they are ready to release screenshots to prove their actions on the referrals made to them.

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