The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) maintained Monday, July 5, that it has enough funds to respond to the needs of Taal Volcano evacuees and continue its disaster relief efforts.
DSWD Secretary Rolando Joselito D. Bautista said they have stockpiles and standby funds amounting to more than P1.08 billion that can be used for disaster operations.
“Ang ahensya ay may sapat na pondo para sa disaster operations (The agency has enough funds for disaster operations),” he said in a virtual Palace press briefing on Monday.
He noted that the DSWD Central Office and Field Offices have standby funds amounting to P209.28 million.
Bautista said a total of 294, 272 family food packs (FFPs) have already been prepositioned in different strategic locations nationwide.
“Ang konsepto naman namin dito kapag ang isang region ay nangangailangan ng tulong, for example, naubusan ng stock ng food and non-food items ay tutulong ang mga kalapit na Field Offices (Our concept here is that when a region needs help, for example, they’re running out of stock of food and non-food items, the nearby Field Offices will help),” he said.
He recalled that during the Taal Volcano’s phreatic eruption on Jan. 12, 2020, they activated the Task Force Group Taal.
“Ang gusto namin dito ay gusto namin itap yung mga iba’t ibang personnel, resources at field offices na pumunta at tumulong sa apektadong rehiyon (What we want here is that we want the various personnel,resources and field offices to come and help the affected region),” the DSWD chief said.
He assured that more assistance will be extended to the families affected by Taal Volcano’s restiveness.
Bautista said they have so far logged 500 family-evacuees in 16 evacuation centers in four municipalities in Batangas.
As of July 4, the DSWD Region IV-A reported that 1,200 families or 4,500 individuals in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) have been affected by Taal Volcano’s unrest.
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/05/dswd-logs-500-family-evacuees-in-4-municipalities-in-batangas/