Cordillera News Agency

February 9, 2025 12:17 AM

DSWD-CAR assures enough resources to aid STS ’Kristine’-affected persons

The Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Cordillera Administrative Region assured enough stockpile of relief goods and resources for the needs of persons affected by severe tropical storm (STS) Kristine in the region.

“The DSWD FO CAR has enough resources that we can use to augment the needs of our communities,” DSWD – CAR Regional Director Maria Catbagan-Aplaten said.

Aplaten said DSWD CAR currently maintains 67,000 family food packs worth more than P 51.7 million and various non-food items (NFI) worth P 53.8 million.

The NFIs which are stored at the warehouses include 5,818 family kits, 2,825 sleeping kits, 3,324 hygiene kits, 4,538 kitchen kits, and 8,856 other NFIs.

Aside from those that are already in the warehouses, the DSWD-CAR is set to receive 5,000 ready- to- eat packs from DSWD National Resource Operations Center.

A stand-by fund of P 2.9 million is also being maintained by the DSWD-CAR. Aplaten said the DSWD-CAR has already prepositioned relief goods in the different provinces as part of their disaster preparedness effort, to ensure that these are readily available in case of disaster.

“As the lead agency for the Food and Non-Food Item (FNI) Cluster under the Response and Recovery, the DSWD is mandated to lead the disaster response operations, especially in instances that the local government units can no longer provide the first line of response or if they do not have sufficient resources to respond to the needs of the affected communities. This means that the DSWD and the LGU should work together in disaster response operations,” Aplaten said.

“The DSWD is ready to provide assistance to the different communities in our Region. Our local government units can submit their requests with the necessary reports through our Social Welfare and Development offices in the provinces and these will be forwarded to the Regional Office,” she said.

For the affected families, they may directly report to their respective barangay officials for proper documentation as this will also be the basis in providing augmentation to the LGUs.

“We continue to work closely with the LGUs to ensure that we are able to provide efficient assistance to all those in need,” Aplaten said.

As of Oct. 24, 2024, the DSWD-CAR already recorded at least 1,664 affected families or 5,490 individuals affected by the STS Kristine in the different provinces of the Cordillera region.

There were also 866 families or 2,882 individuals who were displaced and are staying in 73 evacuation centers region-wide while 294 families or 1,037 individuals are seeking temporary shelter at their relatives or friends.

The DSWD, LGUs and other partners have already provided P 486,127 as initial humanitarian assistance to disaster-affected families and individuals. Redjie Melvic Cawis,  Philippine Information Agency Cordillera

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