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MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) revealed its efforts and preparations for the onset of La Niña and the rainy season on Monday, June 20.
In a press statement, the department said it has standby funds, relief commodities stockpile of food and non-food items, human resources, and logistical facilities ready to be utilized.
As of June 10, the DSWD Central Office and its 17 field offices has a total of P956,057,439 ($20.6 million) in standby funds, which could be used to purchase emergency relief supplies.
A total of P524,339,722 ($11.3 million) worth of stockpiled relief items, including 406,709 family food packs, food and non-food items, are also available at the 17 DSWD field offices. These could be prepositioned or distributed to local government units (LGUs) affected by typhoons or flooding.
Around 67 national-level quick response teams (QRTs) across the country’s regions stand ready for immediate mobilization. Aside from the social welfare and development teams, provincial and municipal action teams are also on alert to render augmentation support for relief and response operations.
Complementing these DSWD teams are organized and trained private volunteers ready for mobilization and deployment to assist in disaster operations. Parent-leaders of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program also serve as a ready resource for repacking and relief distribution.
Logistical support
In terms of logistical facilities, DSWD manages 18 regional warehouses that maintain 30,000 family food packs as prepositioned items at its field offices or at LGUs.
On top of these, the two disaster response center hubs of the department – the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City in the National Capital Region and the Visayas Disaster Response Center in Cebu City – are open 24/7. These hubs contain mechanized systems that speed up the production of the required family food packs.
The two mechanized system hubs can produce a total of 100,000 packs a day, enough to respond to the needs of 500,000 people for three days.
DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman assured the public that the DSWD continues to strengthen its mechanisms to ensure fast and efficient delivery of relief supplies to areas that will be affected during the rainy season.
The DSWD Secretary is Vice Chair for Response of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). The department also serves as lead agency of the Food and Non-Food Cluster, Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster, and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Protection Cluster under the humanitarian cluster system of the NDRRMC. – With a report from Lou Gepuela/ Rappler.com
*$1 = P46.38
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