The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Visayas Disaster Resource Center (VDRC) in Mandaue City, Cebu province is now in double time mode for the production and delivery of the target 100,000 boxes of family food packs (FFPs) for Mt. Kanlaon relief operations in Negros Island.
The VDRC on Sunday (January 12) was able to dispatch 26,800 boxes of FFPs for the Negros Island. A total of 10,000 FFPs were allocated for Negros Occidental, which is under DSWD’s Field Office 6 – Western Visayas, while 16,800 boxes were allotted for Negros Oriental, which is under Field Office 7 – Central Visayas.
“We are particularly ramping up production and dispatch of FFPs from the VDRC in line with the goal of delivering a total of 80,000 FFPs to the Negros Island this week,” Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao of the DSWD’s Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) said on Monday (January 13).
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Saturday (January 11) ordered the swift production and delivery of FFPs to meet the target of 100,000 boxes for stockpiling in the agency’s warehouses as well as those owned by local government units (LGUs) in Negros Island.
“The call here is again, we do not wait for the eruption to happen. Instead, we are magnifying efforts to fill warehouses across the two regions to the brim — ensuring that resources are sufficient and brought closer to our LGUs) and kababayans for their immediate use in any eventuality,” Asst Secretary Dumlao, who is also the DSWD’s spokesperson, said.
Based on the January 13, 6:00 a.m, report of the Disaster Response Operations Management, Information and Communication (DROMIC), the DSWD FO 6 (for Negros Occiental) has a stockpile of 118,345 boxes of FFPs, while the FO 7 (for Negros Oriental) has 81,211 FFPs.
Asst. Secretary Dumlao said more FFPs will be dispatched in batches to the said FOs in the coming days until the goal of prepositioning the additional 100,000 boxes of FFPs is attained.
”Another eruption would mean that more people would be affected and we would have to assist a larger volume of evacuees. For this reason, it is not just our supplies that we are strengthening, we are also doubling our Quick Response Teams (QRTs) on the ground,” the DSWD spokesperson said.
The DSWD FO-Central Visayas has deployed the second batch of its QRT to monitor evacuation centers in Canlaon City from January 11-18.
DSWD FO-Western Visayas also dispatched a new batch of QRT to Negros Occidental to provide technical assistance to affected LGUs.
“Our QRTs are on full-alert to ensure that all open evacuation centers are generally safe, well-maintained and capacitated to address the multifaceted needs of our Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). This has been our continuing call with our LGU counterparts since the December eruption and will remain to be the marching protocol until the situation settles down,” Asst. Secretary Dumlao pointed out. (LSJ)
