By Junex Doronio

MANILA — Just like the motto of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is always “laging handa” during disasters and other calamities.

This was assured to the public by DSWD officials, saying the agency is prepared for the upcoming La Niña phenomenon during the DSWD Thursday Media Forum on June 20 at the Central Office’s New Press Center in Quezon City.

Special Assistant to the Secretary (SAS) for Disaster Response Leo L. Quintilla, who is concurrent Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the National Resource and Logistics Management Bureau (NRLMB), said the DSWD already had a meeting with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) to prepare for the possible scenarios during the La Niña season.

Quintilla said the DSWD meeting with PAGASA last May was upon the instruction of Secretary Rex Gatchalian who wanted the Department to be always prepared whenever there are impending calamities like the La Niña.

“(Month of) May pa lang ay nagpatawag na si Secretary ng preparedness meeting…kasama namin ang PAGASA to give us a picture of what it will look like with the anticipation of the forecast of La Niña. So dito po pinag-aralan na natin kung ano ang dapat gawin ng DSWD,” Quintilla told reporters at the media forum.

He explained that the DSWD will be implementing its Buong Bansa Handa disaster preparedness program to ensure the sufficiency of supplies during the La Niña season.

“Buong Bansa Handa is a program and, at the same time, it is a strategy to ensure na yung ating supplies are ready. And right now, we are studying our eastern seaboard kung saan palaging tinatamaan ng bagyo,”  Quintilla pointed out.

The Buong Bansa Handa will tap two supply chains to deliver the basic food and non-food requirements of disaster victims.

The first supply chain will feature an expanded network of warehouse facilities of local government units (LGUs) provincial governments, and other national government agencies, while the other one will be through partnerships with the private sector through framework agreements or supply agreements.

At present, the DSWD maintains some 1.5 million boxes of family food packs (FFPs) ready to be augmented to selected LGUs where the Department has ongoing relief prepositioning agreement, especially those located in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDA).

Aside from prepositioning, SAS Quintilla assured the public that the agency is also consistently producing FFPs in its major production hubs.

“We are doing our best to maximize our resources for stockpiling. What is important is we have available resources. We have rice, we have raw materials, and we have supplies to ensure that production is continuous because we do not know what will happen. If we need to double, we are going to do that to ensure that we are ready for any disaster event in the second quarter of 2024,” SAS Quintilla explained.

In a related topic, DSWD Undersecretary for Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) Diana Rose S. Cajipe reported the latest data on the agency’s disaster response operations for the families affected by Typhoon Aghon and the recent Mt. Kanlaon eruption in Negros Occidental.

As of press time, the DSWD has already provided humanitarian assistance worth more than Php28.8 million to families affected by Typhoon Aghon in the Ilocos Region, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Bicol Region, Western Visayas, and Eastern Visayas.

The Department also provided over Php26 million worth of assistance to displaced families in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental who were affected by the Mt. Kanlaon eruption.

“Rest assured that the Disaster Response Management Group of the DSWD, under the leadership of Secretary Rex Gatchalian, ay patuloy po ang pag-paplano at paghahanda para po sa mga kalamidad na maaaring harapin ng ating bansa. Ang paghahanda po ng DSWD ay katuwang ang iba’t ibang ahensya ng ating pamahalaan, the local government units, international partners, and the private sector,” Cajipe said.

The Thursday Media Forum is organized by the DSWD Strategic Communications Group and hosted by Special Assistant to the Secretary (SAS) for Communications Raymond Robert Burgos and Agency Operations Service (AOS) Director Clarissa Lara Duran, who is also the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Office of the Asst. Secretary for Strategic Communications.

(el Amigo/mnm)