In his first leg of site visits to evacuation centers in Northern Luzon which bore the brunt of Tropical Cyclone Emong, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Sunday (July 27) engages with evacuees at the Sabangan Elementary School in Dagupan City.

The DSWD chief also oversaw the distribution of various relief goods such as hygiene kits to 133 families and family food packs (FFPs) to 200 fishermen.

Secretary Gatchalian was met by Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Accompanying Secretary Gatchalian in the site visit were Undersecretary Diana Rose Cajipe and Asst. Secretary Irene Dumlao of the DSWD’s Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) and personnel of the Field Office 1-Ilocos Region.

The DSWD chief will then head to La Union province.

The DSWD has so far dispatched around 750,000 FFPs to various localities affected by the successive weather systems that hit the country in the past days. (MBM)