The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has established 981 storage facilities nationwide to ensure the agency’s faster disaster response operations, an official said on Thursday.

DSWD Assistant Secretary Juan Carlo Marquez said the 981 warehouses are located in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, helping the agency “in our prepositioning of relief supplies as well as in fast-tracking our disaster response and relief operations across the country.”

Marquez said the expansion of warehouses has resulted in more efficient disaster response “with a number of DSWD Field Offices (FOs) even gaining commendation from the legislative branch with their swift action amid the onslaught of recent disasters.”

“During our budget hearing in Congress, our Central Luzon Regional Director Venus Rebuldela and NCR [National Capital Region] Regional Director Michael Joseph Lorico were respectively hailed by their congressmen due to their quick response at the height of Typhoon Carina,” he said.

He said the prepositioning efforts were instrumental in DSWD’s swift response since warehouses have hubs, spokes and last-mile facilities.

To date, the DSWD has 12 hubs serving as the central storage facilities with three National Resource Operations Centers in Pasay City, Valenzuela City, and Paranaque City; and the Visayas Disaster Resource Centers in Mandaue City, Cebu.

There are also four DSWD FO 3-Central Luzon hubs in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac; and one DSWD FO 11-Davao Region hub in Pantukan, Davao de Oro.

Another hub is currently being built in Butuan City in the Caraga Region that will serve the whole of Mindanao.

Aside from the hubs, the DSWD has 75 spokes facilities nationwide which are given by local government units (LGUs) in cities as well as in the first, second, and third class municipalities.

The DSWD also has 894 last mile warehouses nationwide in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas or hard-to-reach areas, including 4th, 5th and 6th class municipalities.

“These are the result of our commitment to tap on formalized partnerships with LGUs. In our agreements, they either let us rent their local facilities or use them for free,” Marquez said.

The recently inaugurated storage facility in Polillo Island in Quezon province is among the latest addition to the storage facilities in isolated and hard-to-reach areas in the country.

“The growing number of the agency’s warehouses is cutting down the logistics-related issues and ensuring that the needs of disaster-affected families are promptly met, particularly in crucial moments,” Marquez said. (PNA)