The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) has set aside P500 million worth of quick response funds (QRF) which can be utilized for relief efforts that might be needed in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Betty.
Betty has lingered in the Batanes area but has affected a wide area of the country from north Luzon down to Mindanao. OCD administrator Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno said the amount came from the P256.2 million for the standby QRF for 2023 and P244.7 million from the “continuing QRF from last year.”
“Aside from the QRF, the OCD Central Office and its regional offices have a total of P108.2 million worth of prepositioned non-food items. All these are ready for distribution to assist the affected communities. Other resources of the government are also on standby including equipment for emergency telecommunications, transportation assets, among others,” he added.
Nepomuceno also said the emergency preparedness and response (EPR) protocols of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) are now activated in different parts of the country.
EPR protocols are sets of actions that must be undertaken by various government agencies and the local government units (LGUs) before the onslaught of the storm and during response operations.
“We continue to coordinate with different agencies on preparations for Super Typhoon Betty to ensure that all necessary measures are in place from the national down to the local level. We have already identified and activated appropriate emergency preparedness and response protocols in different regions affected by Betty,”he added.
Government standby resources for Betty include 1,679 teams from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection and Philippine Coast Guard are on standby for search, rescue and retrieval.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development, for its part said it has a total of P2.2 billion in its central office, field offices and National Resource Operations Center. Government response clusters have also been activated last May 26 in preparation for the typhoon.
