As part of its disaster response and operations for Tropical Storm ‘Enteng’, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is continuously producing family food packs (FFPs) to ensure immediate replenishment and availability of food and non-food items (FNIs) for resource augmentation to its field offices and local government units (LGUs).
“As instructed by Secretary Rex Gatchalian, we are ensuring that there are adequate FFPs and non-food items in the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) and the Visayas Disaster Resource Center (VDRC) which can readily be dispatched to areas hit by Enteng,” DSWD Asst. Secretary for Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) Irene Dumlao, who is also the agency spokesperson, said on Monday (September 2).
The NROC, located in Pasay City, serves as the main disaster response hub of the DSWD while VDRC, which is in Cebu City, serves as the DSWD’s central disaster resource hub in the Visayas region.
According to the DRMG asst. secretary, the DSWD, through its Disaster Response Command Center (DRCC), is continuously monitoring and coordinating with the agency’s Field Offices, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center (NDRRMOC), and other concerned agencies to ensure that all requests for assistance will be responded to immediately.
“It was reported to us on Sunday that there are stranded passengers at the Tabaco Port in Tabaco City, Albay. Our DSWD FO in Bicol, in coordination with the concerned LGUs, has already distributed hot meals to these stranded individuals,” the DSWD spokesperson pointed out.
Based on the September 2 report of the DSWD’s Disaster Response Operations Management, Information, and Communication (DROMIC), a total of 6,052 families or 24,043 persons in the 76 barangays in Regions V (Bicol), VII (Central Visayas), and VIII (Eastern Visayas) are affected by the inclement weather.
There are 909 families or 3,736 persons currently taking temporary shelter in 31 evacuation centers in the three regions.
The DSWD has initially provided Php410,000 worth of aid for these affected families.
“Other DSWD FOs are on standby for possible inter-FO augmentation. We ensure that all our offices are ready to provide assistance as the need arises,” Asst. Secretary Dumlao said.
Currently, there are more than 1.74 million boxes of FFPs and Php1.21 billion worth of FNIs available in the DSWD’s NROC, VDRC, and Field Offices. (DSWD)
