A total of 5,500 boxes of family food packs from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) arrived at the port of Basco in Batanes on Sunday morning (November 3) to support the on-going relief-efforts in the island province due to Super Typhoon (ST) Leon and Severe Tropical Storm (STS) Kristine.
“With these relief supplies, we expect to bolster the efforts of the local government of Batanes to address the needs of its constituents,” Disaster Response and Management Group (DRMG) Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao, who is also the agency spokesperson, said on Sunday.
The supplies aboard the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) BRP Gabriela Silang were immediately loaded to delivery trucks by the DSWD Field Office (FO) 2 – Cagayan Valley with the help of local personnel from PCG, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“For the on-going relief response in the municipality of Calayan in Cagayan province on the other hand, we have alloted 2,000 boxes of FFPs,” Asst. Secretary Dumlao pointed out.
“We expect that these will reach open evacuations in the area as soon as possible and to support our affected kababayan who have returned home as Leon exited our country” Asst. Secretary Dumlao said.
In the Bicol Region, as wide-scale relief operations continue for Kristine-hit families in the area, an additional 23,000 FFPs from the Visayas Disaster Resource Center (VDRC) in Cebu City arrived at the Bogtong Regional Warehouse in Legazpi, Albay on Saturday (November 2).
Food boxes were also loaded into an aircraft of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) bound for Bicol Sunday (November 3) as part of the Malaysian government’s pledge to help out with the local humanitarian response for Kristine-battered communities.
These are part of replenishment efforts of the agency amid the continuous distribution of relief aid to affected families across the region, according to Asst. Secretary Dumlao.
In the Visayas, 2,700 boxes of FFPs have been loaded Sunday (November 3) into trucks and boats bound for nine barangays in the Municipality of Carlos P. Garcia in Bohol.
