The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) partners with Philippine Airlines (PAL) Foundation and Air 21to transport relief goods for the victims of the earthquake in Bohol, free of charge.

“We have sent relief goods to PAL Foundation and Air 21 for immediate delivery to Tagbilaran City. This partnership is timely since we really need to speed up the delivery of more relief goods for the victims.  We are grateful for their help,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said.

PAL Foundation will fly in the relief goods while Air 21 will transport the supplies through sea freight using 2Go forwarding services.

Cebu Pacific and Zest Air also offered their services to transport relief goods, without charges. DSWD is in the process of finalizing the agreements with them.

Repacking of relief goods for earthquake victims is still ongoing at the DSWD-National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City, in DSWD Field Office 7 in Cebu City, and at the DSWD Operations Center in Tagbilaran City

Some 562 volunteers went to NROC from October 23-25 to help in the repacking of the targeted 50,000 food packs to be sent to quake-ravaged areas.

Likewise, the DSWD is currently completing the construction of mobile warehouses in the towns of Tubigon and Bool in Bohol.

Meanwhile, a team of 20 pastoral care debriefers and counsellors led by Father Arnold M. Abelardo, Director of Claret Urban Poor Apostolate, is already in Bohol assisting social workers in providing debriefing to the victims.

Earlier, social workers from affected local government units and DSWD-Field Office 7 conducted initial Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) sessions to earthquake-survivors in the different evacuation centers in Bohol and Cebu.

CISD is a pycho-social intervention that helps victims of disasters cope with their traumatic experiences by pouring out their feelings and fears. ###