MANILA: Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Thursday said the agency remains prepared to replenish the supply of family food packs (FFPs) of local government units (LGUs) hit by the onslaught of Super Typhoon Carina and enhanced southwest monsoon or ‘habagat’.
Gatchalian said this is on top of the 360,228 FFPs already released by the DSWD to its various regional offices, where LGUs were badly affected by heavy rains and floods.
‘Now, it’s noteworthy to point out that there’s another 100,000 requests that came in after 12 midnight last night. So, it would bring us to 500,000 family food packs. We are ready to supply that, we are just waiting for the LGUs to pick them up kasi yun ang (that already is the) normal arrangements because they have the trucks while we only have 1-2 trucks,’ Gatchalian reported during Thursday’s situation briefing with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Carina at the Trooper’s Cafe in Malacañang Park.
The 360,228 FFPs released by the ag
ency were broken down as follows: 39,038 went to the National Capital Region (NCR); 171,147 to Central Luzon; 90,957 to 4-A (Calabarzon); 38,766 to 4-B (Mimaropa); and 20,000 to Region 5 (Bicol).
‘Mr. President these are granulated. When we say released, it is either in our field offices already waiting to be picked up kasi (because) when we spoke to the mayors, lahat sila, (all of them) yesterday, they are all in rescue mode muna (first)),’ Gatchalian told President Marcos.
He assured the President that the DSWD is continuously coordinating with the local executives of the affected LGUs to ensure that the needs of the affected families will be swiftly provided.
‘As we speak, LGUs are picking up. In fact, yesterday I touched base with the Metro Manila mayors, the governors of Luzon, lahat sila (all of them) they are in that mode yesterday na ang focus ay rescue muna (that the focus first is to rescue). Yung mga nasa (Those at the) evacuation centers namin na (of ours that are) around 33,000 families, we’ll
take care of them,’ he said.
Gatchalian also told the President that the DSWD is continuously providing augmentation support to the LGUs affected by the recent floods in some parts of Visayas and Mindanao due to the inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and the southwest monsoon.
‘Mr. President, yung issue natin sa Mindanao we’re still continuing with that. We haven’t stopped providing the request of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) area because they also need an augmentation. That’s Maguindanao Del Norte, Del Sur, and Lanao Del Sur so tuloy tuloy rin ho tayo doon, yes hindi rin natin binibitawan yun (we do it continuously there, yes, we also do not give up on that), that’s being serviced out of our field offices in Mindanao,’ he said.
Based on the July 25 6 a.m. report of the DSWD-Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC), there are 101,509 families or 393,962 persons affected by the twin weather disturbance in 1,004 barangays.
These villages are in t
he NCR, Regions 1 (Ilocos Region), 2 (Cagayan Valley), 3 (Central Luzon), Calabarzon, Mimaropa, 5 (Bicol Region), 6 (Western Visayas), 7 (Central Visayas), 10 (Northern Mindanao), and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Source: Philippines News agency