Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian assured on Friday (January 3) sustained augmentation support to all local government units (LGUs) affected by Mt. Kanlaon’s continued restiveness.
“We are closely working with the local government units. We give them the food boxes in lump sum. We give them food boxes that will last them for 21 days and then start replenishing them again. We’ve been doing this since day one of the eruption,” Secretary Gatchalian told ANC on Friday.
As of January 3, the total number of family food packs (FFPs) provided by the DSWD to Kanlaon-affected families has soared to 47,044 boxes
“So right now inside our evacuation centers, since December, we have around 5,000 evacuees, and for the record we have already dispatched over 40,000 family food packs spread across seven or eight affected local government units,” the DSWD chief said.
Secretary Gatchalian reiterated that the agency is ready to augment the resources of LGUs, should the magmatic unrest escalates and requires bigger food aid requirements, non-food items, and even cash assistance.
“We’ve also done a couple of payouts for victims over the Christmas holiday because we know that not everything can be found in those food boxes. They need other essentials. So we went ahead and did a couple of payouts and we will do more payouts in the coming days,” the DSWD chief pointed out.
The Camp Coordination and Management (CCM) cluster of the DSWD is also set to double the LGU responder’s manpower to ensure that all open evacuation centers will be at par to set standards.
In the event that several disasters may hit the country for the year 2025, Secretary Gatchalian said the agency maintains sufficient funds and stockpiles of relief items to support disaster and relief operations.
“We do have the funds. In fact, even last year, despite the successive number of storms, DSWD was able to produce and dispatch a record-breaking close to 8 million family food packs nationwide all throughout the year. It’s part of the Buong Bansa Handa (BBH) Program of our President Bongbong Marcos Jr. where goods are prepositioned and we prepare for disaster response every single day,” the DSWD chief explained.
The BBH employs two supply chains for disaster preparation and response.
The first mechanism features a national and local government-driven supply chain that will improve the production capacities and processes of the DSWD’s National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City, the Visayas Disaster Resource Center (VDRC) in Cebu, and warehouse and storage facilities across the 16 DSWD Field Offices.
For the second mechanism, the DSWD partners with private agencies such as large and small groceries, supermarkets, manufacturers, and distributors to leverage on their technical expertise and resources to create a private sector-driven supply chain. (LSJ)
