Even with the ongoing public health crisis, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Monday said it made sure to secure the emergency response capacity of local government units (LGUs) nationwide.

A total of 2,081,469 family food packs (FPPs) were distributed nationwide, according to DSWD’s Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) report.

“Ang ahensya ay patuloy na namamahagi ng FPPs sa mga LGU upang tulungan silang matugunan ang pangangailangan sa mga pagkain ng kanilang nasasakupan (The agency continues to replenish the FPPs of LGUs nationwide to help them address the needs of their people),” DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said in a virtual conference.

Bautista added that the agency has also provided the LGUs with non-food items composed of basic hygiene and welfare necessities that cost about PHP1,070,944,878.

The DSWD field office in National Capital Region (NCR) received the highest chunk with 366,904 food packs while the agency’s field office in Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) received the lowest allocation with 16,271 food packs.

DROMIC also said the total cost of relief assistance has reached PHP1.59 billion.

Of this figure, PHP1.08 billion were shelled out by the DSWD while PHP477.52 million came from non-government organizations, and another PHP31.84 million from private sources.

“The assistance provided by LGUs is excluded from the breakdown,” the monitoring center added.

This, as the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration warned the public of five to eight tropical cyclones this October “most of which are expected to make a landfall.”

PAGASA cited the likelihood of bringing “floods, flash floods, and rain-induced landslides over susceptible areas, particularly on the eastern sections of the country which normally receive greater amounts of rainfall at this time of the year”. (PNA)