DSWD to shoulder burial expenses for Cebu quake fatalities
DSWD
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will provide burial assistance to families of those who perished in the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck off Cebu on Sept. 30.
DSWD-Disaster Response Management Group Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said the agency’s Field Office 7 in Central Visayas will also extend ₱10,000 in cash aid to each bereaved family.
“The DSWD’s Field Office Central Visayas is now accounting the number of casualties and their location. Our social workers will also talk to the concerned families to inform them that the DSWD will shoulder the burial expenses of their loved ones,” Dumlao said on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
The death toll from the powerful quake continues to rise, along with the number of injured and missing individuals, according to the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
Cebu has since been placed under a state of calamity, allowing the provincial government to mobilize resources, extend immediate assistance, and implement rehabilitation measures.
From Masbate, where he joined President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in distributing aid to families affected by Typhoon Ompong, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian was directed by the Chief Executive to proceed to Cebu to oversee relief operations.
Gatchalian is expected to visit quake-hit communities to ensure urgent needs of displaced families and evacuees are addressed.
Meanwhile, DSWD Undersecretary Diana Rose Cajipe, DSWD Assistant Secretary Ulysses Aguilar, and DSWD-Central Visayas Regional Director Shalaine Marie Lucero will lead the assessment and relief efforts, particularly in Bogo City, which bore the brunt of the quake.