23 October 2016 – Our regional center Alay Bayan-Luson, Inc. (ABI) which had their hands full this past week with emergency response and relief operations due to both typhoon Karen (international name: Sarika) and super typhoon Lawin (international name: Haima) affecting their areas, sends an open letter to Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and Department of Social Welfare and Development  (#DSWD) Secretary Judy Taguiwalo. ABI staff and their Disaster Preparedness Organization (DPO) members temporarily suspended their relief delivery operations in upper barangays of Alfonso Castaneda, Nueva Vizcaya and one barangay in Dupax Del Norte originally scheduled on 24 October, Monday due to threats to security of their development workers.

ABI staff who went today to Barangay Pelaway, Alfonso Castaneda to prepare for the relief delivery operations (RDO) learned from the DPO chairperson Hermilinda Flores that  she has been invited at the detachment of Carranglan Nueva Ecija to answer questions about ABI and the DPO which he chairs. Since Flores could not provide all the answers to the army’s inquiries about ABI, she declined and said that she will accompany the ABI staff to the detachment upon arrival. The army told Flores that they are also on the lookout for their (ABI staff) arrival. They got the names of the DPO members and visited them in their homes one by one.

We are appealing to #Pres. Duterte and DSWD Sec. Taguiwalo to help us give the much needed assistance to calamity survivors of typhoon Karen and super typhoon Lawin.

STOP HARASSING DEVELOPMENT WORKERS! ENSURE #SAFETY OF RELIEF DELIVERY TEAMS!

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