Duterte orders military to oversee aid distribution in areas battered by ''Odette''
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military to supervise distribution aid to areas ravaged by Typhoon ''Odette '' where government presence is minimal.
In a command conference at Gen. Benito Ebuen Air Base in Lapulapu City held Thursday but aired Saturday night, Duterte said Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano can oversee distribution in highly urbanized areas and the military will focus in areas where government presence is not much.
'' (Secretary) Ano will supervise the areas like here which are highly urbanized... But in the areas where there is no presence of government, it will be the military to distribute money,'' he said.
Duterte added he has ''no suspicion about the money being absconded'' but merely a security measure
''The military, as I have said, have structure in some areas,'' he added.
Duterte was eying that funds from the national government would be sent to local government units badly hit by Typhoon ''Odette' by Christmas Day but the deadline has not been apparently met.
Duterte said ''in some areas and even maybe in the province of Cebu, we have difficulty in mobility and even in the structure of distribution of assistance to the people.''
He said people see the government showing military assets on TV and would ask why despite so much air and sea assets, ''the effort (of giving aid) itself is a bit (slow).''
He said his biggest problem is how to provide shelter to those people who were displaced. DMS
