Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman said that all DSWD field offices along the path of typhoon “Pablo” are alerted and advised to closely monitor the situation in their respective areas.

The DSWD has enough resources with a P4.27 million standby funds and P43.41 million worth of relief supplies in all DSWD field offices along the typhoon path ready to augment resources of affected local government units.

As of 8:00 am today, the DSWD field office in Region XI, where typhoon “Pablo” made a landfall in Davao Oriental, reported that some 57 families with 285 persons from the municipality of Baganga in Davao Oriental evacuated to the municipal gymnasium. Likewise, an undetermined number of families from Tarragona also took temporary shelter at the different churches around the area.

Evacuation centers were also activated in Mati, Davao Oriental. The Mati Cultural Center now houses around 200 families while about 100 families evacuated at the Mati Barangay Central Gym. Another 100 families also evacuated at the Governor Generoso Municipal Gym.

Likewise, there are 182 families now staying at the municipal gymnasium of Caraga, Davao Oriental.

The DSWD Region XI will release some 2000 family food packs for the affected families in Davao Oriental upon the request of Governor Corazon Malanyaon.

Coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the region is being done for the transport of the family packs. The DSWD is currently purchasing additional food and non-food items for augmentation to affected provinces.

Furthermore, the DSWD in Region XI reported that 58 houses were totally damaged and 20 were partially destroyed due to big waves in Don Marcelino, Davao del Sur.

In CARAGA, approximately 2,924 families with 14,530 persons from the 49 barangays in Surigao del Sur, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Agusan de Sur pre-emptively evacuated to the identified 55 evacuation centers in these provinces.

The concerned LGUs distributed relief supplies to the affected families. The DSWD in CARAGA has 3,500 family packs available for relief augmentation to the affected local government units.

In Region X, some 2,874 families with 12,485 persons from the province of Misamis Oriental were pre-emptively evacuated and are now taking temporary shelter in 37 evacuation centers around the province.

DSWD social workers continue to coordinate with their counterparts from the affected LGUs for appropriate intervention and assistance that include relief distribution and management of evacuation centers. ### (DSWD-Social Marketing Service) December 4, 2012.