More than P4.39 million worth of relief aid has so far been extended by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as resource augmentation to local government units (LGUs) affected by the eruption of Mount Kanlaon in Negros Island.
This is according to DSWD Assistant Secretary for Disaster Response Management and spokesperson Irene Dumlao. She said the agency continues to send family food packs to Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental amid ongoing operations through its field offices in Western and Central Visayas.
Majority of the assistance went to the cities of Bago and La Carlota as well as the municipalities of La Castellana, Murcia, and Pontevedra in Negros Occidental.
“We continue to coordinate with the concerned LGUs to ensure that timely assistance will be provided to the affected families, as committed by Secretary Gatchalian during his meeting with local officials of the two provinces of Negros Island last Tuesday (Dec. 10),”Dumlao said.
A total of 10,993 families or 37,699 persons from 23 barangays in Western and Central Visayas regions have been affected by the volcanic eruption, according to the December 11, 6 a.m. report of the DSWD Disaster Response Operations Management, Information, and Communication (DROMIC).
Currently, 3,724 families or 12,368 persons are taking temporary shelter in 29 evacuation centers in the affected regions in the Visayas.
The DSWD Western Visayas distributed on Tuesday boxes of relief goods to 246 families composed of 723 individuals in Pontevedra, Negros Occidental. Aside from the family food packs, the displaced families also received hygiene kits and sleeping kits.
The DSWD Central Visayas City Action Team, meanwhile, assisted in the distribution of dinner packs to the evacuees at the Macario Española Memorial School in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental on Tuesday evening.
Social workers from the DSWD field offices in both regions continue to assist the LGUs in the management of evacuation centers, including the registration and profiling of evacuees through the administration of the Family Assistance Card in Emergencies and Disasters (FACED).
The FACED aims to institutionalize a profiling strategy in collecting the demographic and socioeconomic data of disaster-vulnerable and disaster-affected families as well as post- disaster data and information about damage to shelter and humanitarian assistance received.
During his visit to Negros Island last Tuesday, Gatchalian reminded residents of the two affected provinces to remain vigilant and to follow orders of their local authorities for their own safety.
