Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian assured the public the agency is ready to dispatch family food packs (FFPs) and other needed aid to families affected by another explosive eruption of Mt. Kanlaon early Tuesday (April 8) morning.
The DSWD chief said over 250,000 boxes of family food packs (FFPs) were prepositioned in the warehouses of agency’s field offices in Western Visayas and Central Visayas amid the latest volcanic eruption.
“As I speak, our Field Offices in Western and Central Visayas are closely coordinating with affected local government units (LGUs) so we can get real-time updates on the status of affected families, and their need for more provisions of family food packs and non-food items,” Gatchalian said.
Since the eruption of Kanlaon last December 9, Gatchalian said the agency has been delivering bulks of FFPs or ‘ayuda’ packs to the LGUs in Western Visayas (Region 6) and Central Visayas (Region 7). The DSWD shall provide more as the local response to the latest eruption may require additional supplies.
“We expect the numbers of evacuees may spike again, but we are ready. Our nearby warehouses are capacitated. In fact, apart from the more than 100,000 FFPs in Negros Island, we have over 2.5 million boxes of FFPs prepositioned in other warehouses across the country which we can tap anytime for our relief response,” Gatchalian said.
Apart from FFPs, the agency also has P865,447,008-worth of non-food items such as kitchen kit, family kit, sleeping kit, hygiene kit, and laminated sacks, among other relief items.
Gatchalian urged nearby communities to adhere to the emergency evacuation notices of LGUs and prioritize their safety.
“Help is coming their way, so the first thing that they should prioritize is their safety. We will see to it that all our resources will be pooled to also assure their comfort. Considering of course, that many of them have been at the evacuation center) since the volcano has been put under Alert Level 3,” he said.