The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is focusing its efforts on providing immediate food assistance to families and individuals affected by the series of weather disturbances in several regions in the country.

“As we all know, whenever there is a disaster, the first thing that comes into the protocol is food –food on the table for those affected first,” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said in a radio interview on Monday.

Gatchalian said the DSWD has so far released close to 830,000 boxes of family food packs (FFPs) to disaster-hit communities, and aims to reach the 1.5-million mark in the coming days as requests from local chief executives continue to be processed.

“That’s a big amount of family food packs we’ve already released and we are slated to release more,” he said.

While the food relief continues, the DSWD chief said the agency is also in the process of identifying individuals and families who are eligible for financial aid as part of the recovery phase.

“We’re already fine-tuning the list of those affected so that we can start working on recovery. Financial assistance is important because families have different needs. Some of them will want to use it for repairs of houses, some of them want to use it for repair of livelihood,” Gatchalian said.

He said around PHP450 million is being prepared for financial aid, although this figure could increase due to the rising number of affected families.

“The number keeps on increasing by the day or by the hour. So, we’re looking at PHP450 million, but the number might still increase because we’re still seeing rains,” he added.

Gatchalian said the cash assistance will be under the agency’s Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP).

He also appealed for patience from those awaiting relief as the DSWD continues its relief work.

“Mananawagan ako –baka hanapan kami kaagad. Ang mga kababayan natin dapat unawain na pagkain muna ang inaasikaso namin dahil nasa relief-stage pa lamang tayo. Pero habang ginagawa namin ‘yan (I’m appealing –somebody might expect on us. Our countrymen need to understand that food is our main focus because we are still in the relief stage. But as we do that), we’re already looking at the list submitted to us. Then we have to work on the financial assistance for recovery,” Gatchalian said.

Based on the latest Disaster Response Operations Management, Information, and Communication (DROMIC) report, over 1.9 million households have been affected by torrential rains, of which over 31,000 families remain in evacuation centers. (PNA)