Chinese, Filipinos top Karidat recipients

Karidat listed Chinese and Filipinos as the top groups getting more food assistance in the last 10 months.

A Karidat Family Services Report from November 2003 to August 2004 showed 598 food recipients; of these, 119 were Chinese while 114 were Filipinos.

Others include Chuukese, with 96 people getting assistance; Chamorros, 87; Carolinians, 72; other nationalities, 66; and Palauans, 66.

From January 2004 to March 2004, Karidat said some clients returned for additional food assistance: 40 Chinese, seven other nationalities, three Chuukese, two Palauans, and one Carolinian.

Most of the nonresident recipients are displaced workers who have pending labor cases against their employers.

Karidat is a non-government organization that receives funding and donations from all sectors to assist marginalized individuals.

Karidat also receives $100,000 federal grants every year specifically to assist displaced foreign workers. Authorities said Karidat has $5,000 to $7,000 a month funding for displaced workers.

Despite this, some workers complained early this year of discrimination in the release of assistance. They had complained that they had to wait for an average of three hours before getting usually $30 to $50 worth of food assistance each. There were times, they said, that they could not get anything at all after a long wait.

Based on the Nov. 2003 to Aug. 2004 report, Karidat assisted an average of less than 10 Chinese or Filipinos a month, except in December, which reached nearly 100 and August, 76.

Karidat executive director Angie Guerrero said in a previous interview that it was not her office’s intention to withhold assistance. She said her office implemented a new policy to avoid congestion in the office.

At the same time, there was a pending review of workers’ records to ensure they remain eligible for the assistance. This includes looking at the applicants’ bank accounts. This had prompted some workers to question the policy, citing invasion of their rights to privacy.

Karidat had recently asked for additional funding out of the Compact Impact funds to assist indigent immigrants from the freely associated states—Federated State of Micronesia, Marshalls, and Palau—a request that Gov. Juan N. Babauta had denied.

“Many of these people are unskilled and have been unable to secure permanent employment…they have resorted to Karidat for food and shelter assistance as their only source of relief,” Guerrero said in her letter to Babauta. “Due to limited funds or food supply, we have on several occasions denied their request for food. This is really painful, especially when there are children involved. I am humbly requesting for your kind and compassionate consideration in awarding a small portion of the Compact Aid funds to Karidat.”

Guerrero’s letter showed that from an average of 400 welfare families from 1998 to 2001, the number dropped to over 200 in 2003.

Babauta said, though, that this “s a good trend.”

Increasing the funding would “lead to the adverse outcome of more immigrants coming to the CNMI,” he said.

Babauta said Compact Impact have been used to benefit all people in the CNMI, and not just a select group of immigrants.

“I believe that we should continue this practice by investing the grants in education and health and other infrastructure and institutions that all our people can use and enjoy,” he said.