QUEZON CITY — With the onset of the rainy season, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as vice-chair of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), assures that response measures are in place to ensure provision of timely and appropriate interventions to disaster-affected families in an orderly and coordinated manner.
During the recently concluded full-council meeting of the NDRRMC, DSWD Assistant Secretary Vilma Cabrera shared that the Department has upgraded the operational capacity of the National Resource Operations Center (NROC), its central warehouse located in Pasay City.
The upgrading includes the advanced stocking and piling of relief supplies through pallet racking system, mechanized production of 50,000 food packs per day, and maintenance of 100,000 family food packs (FFPs) at any given time.
Aside from this, each of the 16 DSWD-Field Offices will also maintain 30,000 food packs at any given time ready for prepositioning at the local government units.
Asec. Cabrera also shared that there is an ongoing discussion with the United Nations-World Food Programme (UN-WFP) for the construction of regional island warehouses in Cebu for Visayas, Davao for Mindanao, and Clark for Luzon for easier accessibility and response during disasters.
To complement these, regional field warehouses in all DSWD-Field Offices will also be constructed in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Asec. Cabrera added that DSWD in partnership with LGUs also completed the construction of pilot evacuations centers in Pangasinan, Pampanga, Laguna, Albay, Iloilo, and Butuan. Similar structures are also under construction in Isabela and Iloilo.
DSWD is also in close coordination with the other lead agencies in the Response Cluster such as the Department of National Defense for telecommunications and logistics, Department of Health for medical and health emergency services, Department of Education on safety plans and alternative learning spaces for students during disasters, and Armed Forces of the Philippines for search, rescue, and retrieval operations. (DSWD)