Families affected by an oil spill in Oriental Mindoro in February have received P430 million in humanitarian aid from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
According to the report of the DSWD-Disaster Response Management Bureau (DRMB), as of May 11, humanitarian assistance has been provided to the oil spill-affected families in the provinces of Oriental Mindoro, Batangas, Palawan, and Antique.
The assistance consists of 183,499 family food packs worth P125 million and non-food items worth P185,150.
DSWD said these items were sent as augmentation support to the affected local government units.
Meanwhile, financial help, through the DSWD’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, has been provided to 21,046 beneficiaries from Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, and Antique.
Moreover, DSWD said 11,471 beneficiaries have been provided with emergency cash transfer—an adaptive strategy for bridging the gap between immediate disaster relief, humanitarian response, and early recovery support by providing unconditional cash to victims of disasters and emergency situations requiring interventions.
Aside from cash, it also helped facilitate temporary livelihood for affected residents through its cash-for-work (CFW) program.
The beneficiaries took part in various activities, including collecting locally available materials to make improvised oil spill boom and absorbent, establishing barangay or backyard gardens, rehabilitating mangroves, and organizing community clean-up drives.
Some recipients also helped load and unload family food packs.
DSWD said the CFW benefitted 21,933 individuals from the provinces of Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, and Antique.