“DSWD shall remain true to its mandate to serve the public and shall not allow its budget to be contaminated by pork barrel issues.”

This was the reaction of DSWD OIC Emmanuel A. Leyco to the claims of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that the DSWD is among the national government agencies which congressional representatives succeeded in pressuring to allocate pork barrel funds.

He commended Sen. Lacson for his vigilance in monitoring the national government budget deliberations, but said that the DSWD continues to resist the pork barrel system.  “We uphold the Supreme Court ruling on the pork barrel issue that disallows post-legislation intervention by lawmakers,” he said.

OIC Leyco said that the DSWD budget is solely intended for social services for the Filipino people. “Acknowledging that the nature of social services programs may open them to interventions or influence, DSWD has established rules and procedures to protect public resources and programs from vested interests. We very much welcome the vigilance of legislators like Sen. Lacson and institutions like the Commission on Audit (COA) to monitor how government agencies disburse public funds,” he said.

The DSWD exec reiterated that clients who come to our offices will be evaluated based on need and DSWD’s guidelines.

OIC Leyco said that the Department shall observe transparency and accountability with the DSWD budget. “We will post our program reports in our website and circulate them through social media. We will publish the DSWD budget utilization in detail – per program and per region,” he said.

Finally, OIC Leyco shared that the DSWD is willing to coordinate and cooperate with local government officials and lawmakers on efforts and steps to improve the delivery of much needed services for the poor. He reiterated that he was more than willing to discuss with Sen. Lacson and other similar-minded leaders and groups to fight pork barrel and abuse of public funds. #