Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian reported to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr that the agency is ready to replenish the supply of family food packs (FFPs) to the local government units (LGUs) affected by the onslaught of Typhoon Carina compounded by the southwest monsoon or ‘Habagat’.
“Now, it’s noteworthy to point out na, there’s another 100,000 request 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 normal arrangements because they have the trucks while we only have 1-2 trucks,” Secretary Gatchalian said Thursday (July 25) during the situation briefing with President Marcos on Super Typhoon Carina at the Trooper’s Cafe in Malacañang Park.
Secretary Gatchalian said the agency has already released 360,228 family food packs (FFPs) to the various DSWD Regional Offices where LGUs were severely affected by the super typhoon.
“It is broken down as follows: 39,038 sa National Capital Region (NCR); 171,147 sa Central Luzon; 90,957 for 4-A (CALABARZON); 38,766 for 4- B (MIMAROPA); and for Region-5 (Bicol), we have 20,000. Mr. President these are granulated. When we say released, it is either in our field offices already waiting to be picked up kasi when we spoke to the mayors, lahat sila, yesterday, they are all in rescue mode muna,” the DSWD chief pointed out.
According to Secretary Gatchalian, 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 they are in that mode yesterday na ang focus ay rescue muna. Yung mga nasa evacuation centers namin na around 33,000 families, we’ll take care of them,” the DSWD chief said.
Secretary Gatchalian also told the President that the DSWD is continuously providing augmentation support to the LGUs affected by the recent flooding incidents 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 ng 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, that’s being service out of our Field Offices in Mindanao,” the DSWD chief said .
Based on the July 25, 6 AM 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 from 1,004 barangays in the 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). #
