The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has prepositioned millions of relief goods and placed more than 14,000 responders on standby as Typhoon Inday and the enhanced southwest monsoon threaten parts of the country.
At the agency’s weekly media forum on Thursday, DSWD Disaster Response Management Bureau Director Maria Isabel Lanada said the department is prepared to augment the disaster response operations of local government units.
“May enough prepositioned family food packs po tayo and the non-food item, confident po kami dahil sapat naman talaga,” Lanada said.
The DSWD said it currently has a nationwide stockpile of 4,728,481 family food packs, 360,911 ready-to-eat food boxes, and 265,154 non-food items. It also has P644.232 million in standby funds for disaster response operations.
The agency said the preparations are in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to ensure coordinated and timely assistance to vulnerable communities affected by weather disturbances.
A total of 14,442 members of the DSWD Quick Response Teams have also been placed on standby for possible deployment. Lanada said they are trained to assist in camp coordination and provide humanitarian support in evacuation centers and affected communities.
“Hindi lang yung mga alam natin na basic kundi hanggang sa specialized courses ay dapat lahat 100-percent trained ang mga DSWD quick responders natin,” Lanada said.
“Utos ni Secretary Rex ay tiyakin na yung mga Quick Response Teams members ng DSWD ay deployable, ready sa iba’t ibang mga committees sa loob ng evacuation centers,” she added.
While preparing for Typhoon Inday, the DSWD is also continuing its relief and psychosocial support operations in Mindanao following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck several areas in the region.
The quake has affected 391,891 families, or 1,655,313 individuals, and resulted in 1,428 casualties, including 92 confirmed deaths, 1,316 injured persons, and 20 missing individuals.
Lanada said the DSWD has so far distributed 922,408 family food packs, 16,496 ready-to-eat food items, and 18,407 non-food items to families affected by the earthquake.
Total humanitarian assistance for affected communities has reached more than P1.019 billion, including P436.235 million in Emergency Cash Transfer under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program.
To speed up future disaster response operations, the DSWD is also preparing to launch the Disaster Response Operation and Monitoring Information Communication Integrated System (DROMIC-IS) mobile application.
Lanada said the DROMIC-IS app is intended to simplify the processing of requests from LGUs and improve the accuracy of disaster data, including information on women, children, the elderly, the sick, and other vulnerable groups inside evacuation centers.
“So itong app na ‘to pinagawa din po ni Secretary Rex to simplify and ensure po the completeness of our data,” Lanada said.
The mobile application, which can encode data online and offline for real-time monitoring, is scheduled for full public rollout in the third week of July. The DSWD said intensive user training is ongoing across field offices and LGUs.