The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has so far distributed more than P16 million worth of augmentation support to local government units (LGUs) to help them meet the needs of their constituents who were affected by Tropical Storm ‘Enteng.’
DSWD Assistant Secretary for Disaster Response Management Group Irene Dumlao said the aid covers food and non-food items that was provided to the affected populations in Metro Manila, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Central and Eastern Visayas.
Dumlao, also the DSWD spokesperson, said the agency’s Disaster Response Command Center (DRCC) remains on high alert as it coordinates with the various field offices and other concerned agencies to ensure unhampered response and swift assistance.
“We make sure that we are strengthening our lines of communication to immediately address the needs of our affected communities,” she said.
Dumlao said relief supplies are in place in Northern Luzon and Cagayan Valley, which are now being severely affected by the weather disturbance.
In the DSWD regional warehouse in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Dumlao said they have already delivered 5,000 family food packs. They have also prepositioned a total of 16,116 family food packs and relief supplies across six storage facilities in the province.
“This is to ascertain that we will never run out of relief supplies for our kababayans (countrymen) as ‘Enteng’ brings heavy rainfall to their area,” she added.
Based on the September 3 report of the DSWD’s Disaster Response Operations Management, Information, and Communication (DROMIC), a total of 80,078 families or 303,938 persons in 767 barangays are reeling from the impact of the storm in the affected regions.
There are 14,607 families or 60,202 persons currently taking temporary shelter in 441 evacuation centers.
“We are facing a high volume of affected families, but we assure that we will maximize our prepositioned and available resources so that we can attend to their needs and other necessary interventions,” Dumlao stressed.
