A lot of people volunteered to help out with the relief goods. A girl from Cebu who volunteered to help out got really frustrated with the slowing down of getting the relief goods over to the victims. She noted that many relief goods sent in by Indonesia were already pre-packed in a pouch and ready to distribute but then the volunteers with the Department of Social Welfare were made to separate and repack the goods. To her, this posed a significant delay in getting the goods to the victims. She felt so bad seeing that other countries had gone out of their way to help out and send relief goods to the Philippines but then the bottleneck had to be in the Philippines with so many unnecessary delaying steps.
Ms. Cherrey Mae Pancho Bartolata has no political agenda whatsoever. She was just frustrated with the delays that the whole repacking caused, knowing that every second counts in getting the already pre-packed relief goods over to the victims who need it most.
“The relief goods from Indonesia were already packed in a pouch and ready for distribution but we were asked to open the pouches and change the contents. I could not understand why we had to repack the goods. We could have distributed the relief goods directly to the victims. Many of us just went home very much disappointed. I’d never again give my volunteer services to the government.”