The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced Friday it has imposed a red alert status in its Disaster Response Command Center (DRCC) at its Quezon City central office, as well as its field offices in all affected regions amid the ongoing assault of tropical storm ‘Crising.’
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian maintained the agency’s relief resources are in place and disaster response teams are activated to assist in humanitarian missions and distribute aid to Filipinos displaced by the latest weather disturbance.
“Our command center here at DSWD is always operating, so that we can match the needs of the evacuation center with our nearest warehouse that has available goods. What is important to us is the speedy and prompt care for the victims of disasters,” Gatchalian said in Tagalog.
The DRCC is the central command center of the agency for coordinating and implementing disaster response operations. Under a ‘red’ alert status, more back-up DSWD personnel will be on duty at the center to expedite necessary disaster operations.
Gatchalian emphasized that ahead of ‘Crising,’ the DSWD already prepared three million boxes of family food packs across 934 storage hubs nationwide complemented by the continuous production of new relief supplies at their main warehouses in Pasay City, Metro Manila and Mandaue City, Cebu.
All of these proactive approaches align with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s marching orders to ensure government aid could immediately bring comfort to disaster-hit communities, according to the DSWD chief.
“Our production and stockpiling of prepositioned goods in our various warehouses—there are about a thousand in the whole country—continue. So, we can hope that if the impact (of the storm) gets bad and a family has been displaced or affected, they will not starve,” Gatchalian said.
The DSWD chief also directed all of the agency’s field offices nationwide to make sure that disaster response personnel are available and ready to distribute relief goods in areas in need of aid any time of the day.
For her part, DSWD Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao of the Disaster Response Management Group said they will send disaster response personnel to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Operation Center in accordance with its ‘red’ alert status, too.
“We have various personnel that will be deployed to the OCD (Office of Civil Defense) for better and faster coordination, so that we can immediately respond to the requests of the various local government units,” Dumlao said.
The DSWD has P2.9 billion worth of standby funds and stockpile—comprising more than three million family food packs and with at least 28,107 ready-to-eat food boxes and 334,791 non-food items, as of Friday, July 18.
