The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Thursday assured it has sufficient stockpile of relief goods and budget for the provision of financial assistance for recovery efforts of those affected by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) which continue to batter most of Luzon and parts of the Visayas.

In a Palace press briefing, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian said family food packs have been prepositioned to the DSWD’s regional, provincial and municipal hubs ahead of the onslaught of Kristine, in line with its “Buong Bansa Handa” program which replenishes supply of essential goods all-year round.

“Sa katunayan, bago natin naramdaman iyong epekto ng Bagyong Kristine, ang national stockpile natin – ito iyong mga family food packs na nakakalat sa lahat ng mga warehouses natin sa buong bansa – nasa kulang-kulang two million pieces (In fact, before we felt the effects of Typhoon Kristine, our national stockpile — these are family food packs that are scattered in all our warehouses throughout the country — was around two million pieces),” Gatchalian said.

As of Thursday morning, Gatchalian said there are still 1,982,000 family food packs in DSWD warehouses nationwide.

“Nabawasan mula kahapon hanggang ngayon kasi nagri-release na tayo (It decreased from yesterday because we are releasing),” he said.

In the Bicol Region, which was among the hard-hit areas, there are around 170,000 family food packs before the onslaught of Kristine, which is now down to 121,000 as local government units (LGUs) continue to withdraw supplies.

“Pero hindi tayo tumitigil diyan, habang nagwi-withdraw sila, nagpapadala na tayo ng karagdagang another 100,000 family food packs sa Bicol – en route na iyon ngayon (But we are not stopping there, while they are withdrawing, we are already sending another 100,000 family food packs to Bicol – that is en route now),” Gatchalian said.

The agency still has enough funds for the provision of cash assistance for the recovery of those affected by the inclement weather, he added.

“The DSWD has available funds, ready to mobilize financial assistance in the coming days. Hindi naman ‘yan nauubos (That doesn’t run out). That’s on top of our regular assistance funds at meron din kami ‘yung disaster funds namin (and we also have our disaster funds),” Gatchalian said.

In an interview with GMA-7 Unang Hirit, Gatchalian said role of the DSWD is to make sure that LGUs have sufficient relief resources since they are the first respondents during disasters and calamities.

“Ang DSWD, ang role namin is suportahan ang ating mga local government units kung sakaling kulangin sila ng mga goods (The DSWD’s role is to support our local government units if they will have shortage of relief goods),” he said.

Gatchalian said the LGUs of Bicol have so far picked up their requests of 50,000 boxes of family food packs from the agency’s Field Office 5 to support relief operations for their respective constituents.

As of 6 a.m. Thursday, the DSWD has so distributed over PHP55 million in humanitarian assistances to regions affected by Kristine.

These regions are Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Cordillera Administrative Region, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Soccsksargen and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

DSWD Field Office (FO)-Central Luzon Region Director Venus Rebuleda said her FO is actively accommodating relief requests from Aurora, Bataan, and Bulacan and to have these promptly distributed to Kristine-hit families.

Cagayan Valley regional director Lucia Suyo-Alan said his FO has enough relief supplies for the affected families even as the storm made a landfall over Isabela. (PNA)