Ex-DSWD chief Dinky Soliman passes away
DINKY SOLIMAN – Former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) passed away on Sunday, September 19, at 68.
The longtime social worker and activist died due to complications from renal and heart failure.
It was in August when Dinky and her husband Hector along with other family members contracted the dreaded coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19. Fortunately, they were able to survive.
According to her husband, the former social welfare secretary had “many comorbidities.” In fact, she was already confined in the hospital when she acquired COVID-19 in August.
Dinky Soliman was last seen in public during the wake of late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in June. Her former boss passed away at the age of 61 due to renal disease secondary to diabetes.
Dinky Soliman, whose real name is Corazon Victoria “Dinky” Nerves Juliano-Soliman, first headed the social welfare department during the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001-2005).
However, she resigned along with other Cabinet officials and heads of agencies, who are known collectively as “Hyatt 10” amid the issue of Arroyo in 2004. At the time, the former president was accused of fraud during the 2004 presidential elections. It was dubbed as the “Hello, Garci” controversy.
In 2010, she was appointed as DSWD secretary of ex-president Noynoy Aquino. During her tenure as social welfare secretary, she bolstered the implementation of the poverty alleviation program, 4Ps or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, and also chaired Aquino’s cabinet group on Human Development and Poverty Reduction.
The longtime social worker and activist who hailed from Tarlac earned her bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of the Philippines Diliman while she obtained her master’s degree in public administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
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