DSWD releases P378M worth of aid to Mindanao after magnitude 7.8 quake

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Monday said it has already released P378 million worth of relief aid to Mindanao following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on June 8.

According to the DSWD, the released humanitarian relief is meant to provide assistance to communities severely affected by the earthquake in Southern Mindanao.

The Department said it has also deployed mobile kitchens serving hot meals and family tents currently providing temporary shelter to displaced families.

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READ: Inquirer Foundation, PRC appeal for aid to support quake victims

A total of 520,722 family food packs (FFPs), 10,364 ready-to-eat food (RTEF) boxes, and 13,125 non-food items have also been distributed to families affected by the quake.

The DSWD then maintained that it is well-equipped to sustain its ongoing relief efforts with over P4.3 billion worth of food and non-food items prepositioned across all regions alongside a readily available Quick Response Fund or QRF amounting to P94.378 million.

Based on the DSWD’s Disaster Response Operations Monitoring, Information and Communication (Dromic) report as of 6 a.m. on Monday, 380,379 families or 1,627,376 individuals across 635 barangays in Zamboanga, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have been impacted by the quake.

Gearing up for Francisco

Meanwhile, the DSWD in the same statement said that it has already begun gearing up for the effects of Typhoon Francisco as Batanes and northeastern Cagayan have already been placed under Signal No. 1.

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READ: Francisco may intensify into a super typhoon within 12 hours – Pagasa

“We will not wait for several days before we respond to the needs of our fellow citizens who have been affected,” said DSWD Asec. Irene Dumlao said.

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“In fact, regarding this typhoon affecting our country, while we continue to provide assistance in Mindanao, we are ready to extend the same assistance here in Luzon, which may also be affected by this storm,” she added.

According to Dumlao, the DSWD has already facilitated the loading of critical relief supplies into container vans bound for Basco, Batanes.

The vans carry 7,000 family food packs (FFPs), 1,020 kitchen kits and 100 modular tents.

“These goods are expected to arrive in the province between June 24 and 25,” the DSWD said.

“The arrival of these supplies will boost the relief reserves in Batanes to a total of 24,034 FFPs, supplementing the 17,034 boxes already prepositioned in the province,” it added.

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Furthermore, the DSWD said it has also strategically prepositioned 4.7 million FFPs across its regional field offices and warehouses nationwide to augment the resources of local government units during emergency operations. /cb