Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Department Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has disbursed a total of ₱20.7 billion as emergency shelter assistance (ESA) for more than a million families whose homes were partially or totally damaged by typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

But three years since, more families are still in need of emergency assistance. Others, who have received their ESAs, claim to have been short-changed.

The DSWD gives out ₱30,000 to families with totally damaged homes and ₱10,000 for those with partially damaged houses.

But in a consultation of DSWD with Eastern Samar residents, one group claimed their barangay leaders reportedly "manipulated" the list of beneficiaries and even limited the release of funds.

One of the residents said, "Pag pumirma ka sa blanko papel tatanggap ka ng 10 (₱10,000) — kahit ka totally (damaged). At the same time di ka tatanggap ng ESA pag di ka pumirma sa blank bond paper. Bakit ginagawa ito sa atin? Mahirap na nga tayo lalo pa tayo pinapahirapan, samantalang para naman yan sa atin."

[Translation: If you sign a blank sheet, they'd give you P10K even if you house was destroyed. But if you don't, you won't receive anything at all. How come they did that to us. They are making things more difficult for the poor.]

The DSWD administration reviewed the ESA disbursements and found that among the common complaints of Yolanda survivors were:

Wide discretion given to barangay chair and other officials in the selection of beneficiaries

Failure of officials to give beneficiaries the full amount

Confusion in a revised DSWD circular listing guidelines for identification of beneficiaries

DSWD Assistant Secretary Aleli Bawagan explains, "It (circular) created a lot confusion, chaos and anger. If I was in orginal list ng pabahay nung nililista then suddenly di na ko kasali… Marami naging exclusions and marami rin naging, you could say arbitrary inclusions, because discretion was given to barangay officials [There were a lot of arbitrary inclusions, exclusions because of the discretionary powers of village officials]."

As of September 2015, 24 complaints have been filed with the Office of the Ombudsman against local officials for alleged irregularities in the distribution of ESAs.

In one case, the Ombudsman (Visayas) suspended last July, two barangay officials in Lemery, Iloilo for taking ₱10,000 from the ₱30,000 ESA of a Yolanda survivor. The Ombudsman said this was considered as extortion. The two officials are also facing a criminal case for solicitation or acceptance of gifts.

Based on the DSWD's initial review, 83,228 families in Western Visayas are eligible and still have to be given ESAs. The agency would need an additional budget of ₱1.17B for them.

According to Bawagan, the agency is still looking for a source of funds because the Budget department has disapproved the request for this.

Rehab program 'agonizingly slow'

"Build back better" was the Aquino adminstration's overall vision for the Yolanda rehabilitaiton program. But delays in the implementation of projects apparently have blurred that vision.

This, even while data from the Budget department show ₱105 billion have been released for Yolanda rehabilitation. The total funding requirement for the program is ₱150 billion.

Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement president Isagani Serrano describes the rehabilitation program: "It's agonizingly slow, kung gagamitin mo ang principle na, build back better, this is not even building back… Pag nade-delay o di mo makuha ang data, ang implication something hanky-panky is going on."

[Translation: Forget the "better," this is not even "building back." When data go missing, the implication is something fishy is going on.]

Yolanda Rehabilitation & Recovery Program

As of June 2016:

Target

Completed

NHA

Housing units

205,128

25,237

DPWH

National Roads (kms.)

107.6

102.28

Bridges(kms.)

1,852.53

1,734.44

DepEd

Classrooms

2,313

1,609

BFAR

Fishing boats

54,825

51,861

DA

Farm tools

27,372

24,643

DTI

Starting kits

12, 477

4,397

Source: NEDA

According Bawagan, only P35.1M remains from cash donations to the DSWD. But she remains hopeful that it's still not too late to give assistance to Yolanda survivors.

"Yung kalamidad and injustice na nangyari because they were not able to receive government assistance which they deserve — ayaw na namin maulit ito and hopefully maka-respond pa din kami despite 3 years after Yolanda."

[Translation: We don't want a repeat of the injustice done to calamity victims. They were deprived of the help they deserve. Hopefully we could still catch up in helping them even if three years have passed.]