The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assured the public Thursday, Oct. 14 that it has enough resources and funds to respond to the needs of areas affected by granular lockdowns and calamities.
DSWD Assistant Secretary Glenda Relova said only nine local government units in Metro Manila have officially sought the augmentation assistance, particularly family food packs (FFPs). These include the cities of Pasay, Quezon City, San Juan, Caloocan, Makati, Mandaluyong, Manila, and Paranaque; and the municipality of Pateros.
“So patuloy pa rin kami na nakikipag-ugnayan dun sa ating ibang local government units, though mayroon kami naka-preposition sa kanilang tig 1,000 na food packs in case they will be needing it (So we are closely coordinating with our other local government units, though we have prepositioned 1,000 food packs each in case they will be needing it),” she said during the Laging Handa briefing.
She said a total of 15, 500 FFPs were available for distribution for 16 LGUs in Metro Manila.
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Relova said as of Oct. 13, the DSWD has so far distributed 45, 775 FFPs worth P27.69 million to pilot areas under granular lockdown.
She expressed the agency’s readiness to provide augmentation aid to the LGUs for relief operations and should the granular lockdown be implemented nationwide.
Memorandum Circular No. 11, series of 2021 provides that the provision of FFPs is a co-sharing responsibility of DSWD and the concerned LGUs.
Households in lockdown areas are expected to receive food packs from their respective LGU for the first seven days while the DSWD will augment on the eight and following days of the quarantine, the MC No. 11 provides.
“Malugod po namin na pinapabatid na handa at sapat ang pondo ng ahensya upang magbigay ng augmentation assistance sa mga lungsod na magpapatupad ng granular lockdown in case na i-rollout natin sa iba’t ibang areas at iadopt ito nationwide gayundin po sa mga nasalanta ng bagyo (We are pleased to inform the public that the agency is ready and has enough funds to provide augmentation assistance to cities that will implement granular lockdown, in case, we roll out it in different areas and have it adopted nationwide, as well as those areas affected by the typhoon),” the DSWD official said.
She said as of Oct. 13, the DSWD has standby funds amounting to P1.05 billion. Of the amount, P138 million has been earmarked as standby funds of the DSWD Central Office.
Around 387,000 FFPs have been prepositioned in Field Offices (FOs) and satellite offices around the country, Relova said.