Article by:
Sarwell Meniano
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has distributed 165,940 family food packs to victims of Typhoon Odette in Eastern Visayas.
As of January 26, the DSWD already released PHP97.29 million worth of food assistance to badly-hit families in the provinces of Southern Leyte, Leyte, and Eastern Samar, said Abelardo Bibat, DSWD Eastern Visayas regional information officer in a phone interview.
In Leyte, food packs have been distributed in the towns of Dulag, Hilongos, Hindang, Matalom, Tacloban City, Bato, Inopacan, Javier, Abuyog, and Mahaplag.
In Southern Leyte, recipients are from the towns of Anahawan, Hinunangan, Hinundayan, St. Bernard, San Juan, Silago, Liloan, Pintuyan, San Francisco, San Ricardo, Bontoc, Libagon, Limasawa, Maasin City, Macrohon, Malitbog, Padre Burgos, Sogod, and Tomas Oppus.
The agency also delivered food packs to Mercedes town in Eastern Samar province.
Each FFP contains 6 kilos of rice, four cans of corned beef, four cans of tuna flakes, two cans of sardines, five sachets of coffee, and five sachets of cereal drink, which are enough for a family of five for two to three days.
“The DSWD has been coordinating with other members of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and local government units to fast-track the distribution of family food packs,” Bibat said.
Meanwhile, the DSWD has prepositioned 11,604 food packs stored at the DSWD regional resource operations section warehouse in Palo, Leyte and storage areas in Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Biliran.
“Storing food packs in different strategic locations before a disaster will allow us to immediately respond to requests of local government units,” Bibat added.
Volunteers from the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, and DSWD personnel packed the relief items distributed to the families.
Under the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, the local governments are the first responders while the DSWD is tasked to augment the response efforts after disasters. (PNA)
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