• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said April 9 that local government units affected by the latest explosive eruption of Mount Kanlaon can ask for resource augmentation anytime.
“We assured the LGUs that they can request for resource augmentation anytime. In fact, we have strategically prepositioned over 150,000 boxes of family food packs (FFPs) in the Negros Island alone for a more seamless relief operations in the area,” DSWD assistant secretary Irene Dumlao said in a statement.
Dumlao said the DSWD immediately coordinated with affected LGUs and other concerned agencies to determine the needs of affected families, after the moderately explosive eruption at 5:51 a.m. April 8 that lasted for 56 minutes.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian also earlier said that over 250,000 FFP boxes were prepositioned in the warehouses of the agency’s field offices in Western Visayas and Central Visayas, even before Tuesday’s eruption.
“We expect that the number of evacuees may spike again, but we are ready. Apart from the more than 100,000 FFPs in Negros Island, we have over 2.5 million boxes of FFPs prepositioned in other warehouses across the country which we can tap anytime for our relief response,” Gatchalian said.
Aside from FFPs, also available are non-food items, such as kitchen kit, family kit, sleeping kit, hygiene kit, and laminated sacks, among other relief items, all worth about P865 million.
Gatchalian said that since the explosive eruption Dec. 9, the agency has been delivering bulks of FFPs to concerned LGUs in Negros.
As per latest report of the DSWD’s Disaster Response Operations Management, Information and Communication, 12,761 families, or 48,850 individuals, have been affected by the eruption of Mt. Kanlaon since December.
Of the affected families, 2,608 families or 8,316 persons, are currently in 22 open evacuation centers, while 3,702 families, or 11,892 persons, are temporarily staying with friends or relatives. | CGC
