The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is focusing its efforts on providing immediate food assistance to families and individuals affected by the series of weather disturbances in several regions, while also fine-tuning the list of beneficiaries for financial aid.

“As we all know, whenever there is a disaster, the first thing that comes into the protocol is food—-food on the table for those affected first,” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said in an interview over ANC’s Headstart on Monday (July 28).

Secretary Gatchalian said the DSWD has, so far, released close to 830,000 boxes of family food packs (FFPs) to disaster-hit communities and aims to reach the 1.5 million mark in the coming days as requests from local chief executives continue to be processed.

“That’s a big amount of family food packs we’ve already released and we are slated to release more,” the DSWD Secretary told Headstart anchor, Karen Davila.

While the food relief continues, the DSWD chief emphasized that the agency is also in the process of identifying individuals and families who are eligible for financial aid as part of the recovery phase.

“We’re already fine-tuning the list of those affected so that we can start working on recovery. Financial assistance is important because families have different needs. Some of them will want to use it for repairs of houses, some of them want to use it for repair of livelihood,” Secretary Gatchalian pointed out.

Around Php450 million is being prepared for financial aid, although this figure could increase due to the rising number of affected families.

“The number keeps on increasing by the day or by the hour. So we’re looking at Php450 million, but the number might still increase because we’re still seeing rains,” the DSWD chief said.

Secretary Gatchalian said the cash assistance will be under the agency’s Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP).

Secretary Gatchalian also appealed for patience from the public as the DSWD continues its relief work.

“Mananawagan ako—baka hanapan kami kaagad. Ang mga kababayan natin dapat unawain na pagkain muna ang inaasikaso namin dahil nasa relief-stage pa lamang tayo. Pero habang ginagawa namin ‘yan, we’re already looking at the list submitted to us. Then we have to work on the financial assistance for recovery,” Secretary Gatchalian said.

Based on the latest Disaster Response Operations Management, Information, and Communication (DROMIC) report, more than 1.9 million families have been affected by torrential rains, of which over 31,000 families remain in evacuation centers. (YADP)