DSWD PROBING ‘DOOMSDAY CULT’
SOCIAL Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian has ordered an investigation on the alleged illegal acts of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc., reportedly a religious cult in Surigao del Norte.
Based on the reports, the religious cult is collecting the cash grant of its members who are beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
The DSWD chief ordered the probe following the privilege speech of Senator Risa Hontiveros which detailed the activities of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc., which the senator alleged to be a religious cult in Surigao del Norte.
“We have taken stock of the privilege speech of the good senator, Madame Chair, and we took inventory immediately of how many 4Ps households we have there. But obviously, these are initial numbers because it could not be in just one sitio but in more sitios,” Gatchalian said.
According to records of the DSWD, in Sitio Kapihan in the Municipality of Socorro, there are 74 households which are 4Ps beneficiaries while in that barangay itself, Barangay Siring, there are 503 households.
“We’ve already spoken about getting our city links and our municipal links to pry into the well-being of these 4Ps beneficiaries in that area,” the DSWD chief said as he promised to provide the Senate with an update on their investigation.
The 4Ps is a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18.
Gatchalian maintained that as a matter of practice in the DSWD, “what is for the beneficiary is for the beneficiary.”
“It’s against the creed of the Department when may tumabas, no matter kung sino man yan (whoever violates, no matter who it is), no government official, no private individual can take what is given directly to the beneficiary,” the DSWD chief said.
The Department will also look into the beneficiaries of Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) in the Caraga Administrative Region (Region 13), with focus on those barangays, sitios that are within the area of influence of the religious cult.
Senators Risa Hontiveros and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, each filed a resolution calling for a Senate investigation into the activities of the alleged religious cult Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc., which is based in Surigao del Norte.
