I don’t know if you are aware but if you got infected with CoViD, you are entitled to a P5,000 cash assistance from DSWD. But I better warn you of our bad experience.
So it’s been quite hectic lately since we had piles of errands waiting for us to do, after almost a month of my husband, myself, and our children battling the dreaded virus. We had to check off tasks from the list one by one. Not to mention the heaps of laundry sitting and waiting for me, and until now, we’re still trying to complete all those hanging tasks.
But I’m glad we are moving forward, and I finally have the time to sit — but NOT relax because unfortunately, I am writing to express my disappointment from our very bad experience at DSWD, or what is appropriately referred to as the Department of Social Welfare & Development. It’s a department of the City government supposedly designed to uplift living conditions and empower the disadvantaged children, youth, women, the elderly, persons with disabilities, families in crisis or at-risk.
What transpired from our unfortunate experience at DSWD last week didn’t seem like it. Or how can one attain help, all the more be empowered at that level, when, even in the process of complying with requirements, DSWD is almost of little to no-help in uplifting people’s lives?
As a City government employee, a certain lady at DSWD (who apparently was not acting like one) did not seem to know how to genuinely provide government service, especially to people in obvious need. She seemed like she was so unhappy in her job, she was snubbing almost every document presented to her in a helter-skelter manner, without bothering to dutifully check each one.
She was acting in a most uninterested manner to help especially the underprivileged-looking ones who, mind you, had been queuing for hours for their turn. It was taking a while for the long line to progress, some even had to decide to return home because they said they were tired already.(Do people realize the real long-term negative effects of CoViD?)
We all are entitled to equal help and treatment from government no matter our social status, but I believe all the more attention should be given to the indigent and the needy ones who sadly get shrugged-off more easily by public servants who are acting privileged.
But this DSWD lady’s luck to continue on being satirical to everyone of us there asking for ayuda was interrupted when my family’s turn came. This was Day 2 of our attempt to ask for financial assistance.
Earlier on Day 1, my shy husband had gone through a bad experience with this DSWD lady collecting the requirements who showed him an “attitude”. But maybe she was just having a bad day that day, we thought.
When this lady saw my husband a second time, her cheeky sarcasm continued! She did her usual casual routine, flipping through the documents presented, and maybe verifying their authenticity.
Then with her usual now-familiar arrogant tone, this DSWD lady smirked, and in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, questioned my husband’s capability to make an authorization letter: “Haha! Unsa man ni? Ikaw m’oy mo authorize ni…?” (What kind of a letter is this? YOU are the one authorizing…?)
Where’s the decency there? And we were in a Department that desires to “uplift” and “empower” people?
So my usually-collected husband matched the DSWD lady’s sarcasm, and read the letter aloud right to her face, to make her realize it was actually done the way they officially require it.
Please be informed that the DSWD lady’s motive to belittle and embarrass was manifested in the kind of service and poor behavior she was showing all of us there.
I feel sorry nobody warned her we were not her daily pushovers. I couldn’t anymore stand her shabby behavior the past two days. I just felt obligated to call out right there and then the condescending manner she was instructing every single one of us asking for ayuda from DSWD.
But lo and behold, this City government employee confidently exclaimed in a grumpy tone: “Dili man ni among trabaho!” (This is not even our job!)
So whose job was it anyway to facilitate DSWD cash assistance for CoViD survivors? Can anyone please explain to us what this DSWD lady was supposed to be doing at DSWD? She wasn’t even paying attention to the details in our documents.
With the behavior she was demonstrating there, she did not seem to want to provide government aid to us, survivors of CoViD. We observed the same pattern of her ill manners and bad behavior as she lashed out her decisions on a whim. We saw how she did it to a number of indigent people who came before us, the kind of submissive and seemingly-unassertive people who had little to no-say.
Whether they complied with the requirements correctly or not is beside the point; it was simply rude of her to grumpily declare, “Ay, dili ni mao! Balik ra ugma!” (This is not the right document! Come back tomorrow!)
Besides, what’s the point of delaying the provision of urgent assistance during the pandemic? How can the City genuinely empower or uplift the underprivileged when this one person assigned at DSWD does not seem willing to provide assistance at the moment they need it most? Such insensitivity.
I don’t think the person ever got the memo on the proper way to ask questions: Ask to better understand, not to belittle. I assumed that government employees — especially in a Department that specializes on social work — would have been well-versed with that already.
After calling the attention of the DSWD lady, two simple-looking people approached us to express appreciation for standing up for them as well. One of them said, “Sakto ra jud to, Ma’am, kay kami mahadlok ug maulaw na laman mi mangutana kay mga isog kaayo.” (What you did was correct because people like us are intimidated by them, and are too timid to ask questions because they are cocky.)
We can correct this very typical scenario if we stand our ground. We cannot allow such entitlement to spread like a disease. It has to stop. And I really hope it will.
So much about the tea, I will now try to help you prepare the requirements you need and how to go about them. If all of you in a household got CoViD-positive, each one has to process the request for cash assistance individually.
And if you happen to have children who also got CoViD like Chebby who’s six years old, and Raxu who’s four years old, you’ll have to ask a relative or anyone you trust to process the aid for them.
I repeat, a parent cannot process his/her child’s request for CoViD assistance, even if you actually live in one household. Such a requirement is absurd alright, but that’s how the City government wants us to comply, so we’re doing just that.
Here are the requirements you need to submit: original copy of the Barangay Clearance; photocopy of your Voter’s Certificate or Voter’s ID; original copy of your swab results; original copy of your completed Quarantine Certificate. You can, of course, request the original copies from your respective barangays. (And for good measure, you have to request your barangay to print the documents in their original full color. We almost got held up because of the black & white print outs of our documents, with the DSWD assuming they were mere photocopies. The truth was, our Barangay simply ran out of colored ink.)
I hope this true story gets the attention of the City government so our government employees can also re-evaluate themselves, and perhaps realize how genuine public service must be done. We citizens pay our honest taxes; the least that civil servants can provide us is a kind and decent attitude.
I also hope the concerned person truly understands the deep empathy her job requires. Otherwise, let me repeat what my Mom wisely advised her that day: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Lujana Ciara Romero-Herrenauw
[email protected]
