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DSWD to invest more in disaster resiliency projects – Sec. Gatchalian
July 24, 2025
DSWD chief visits Manila’s ‘Yorme’ to offer agency’s aid to flood-hit Manileños
July 25, 2025

DSWD chief reports to PBBM: Over 330K food packs given to disaster-hit Pinoys

July 24, 2025

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Thursday (July 24) said the agency is all-out in its replenishment efforts to ensure adequate and timely provision of family food packs (FFPs) to communities reeling from the combined effects of the habagat, and Tropical Cyclones ‘Crising’, ‘Dante’, and ‘Emong’.

“We have already released since last Saturday 337,228 family food packs. At the moment, the requests are streaming in from various regions. We are looking at close to 600,000 requests, in which the 330,000 we have already fulfilled,” Secretary Gatchalian reported to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr during the briefing on the weather systems affecting the country.

Secretary Gatchalian told the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRMMC) in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, that the continuous production of FFPs has resulted in the swift distribution of more than 330,000 boxes of food packs to disaster-hit Filipinos nationwide.

The DSWD chief said the bulk of the released FFPs went to Central Luzon, where a total of 129,423 food packs have been so far distributed to families affected by the severe flooding and intense rainfall, caused primarily by the southwest monsoon or habagat.

The DSWD’s National Capital Region (NCR) Field Office has so far distributed more than 62,968 boxes of FFPs to flood-hit communities in several local government units (LGUs).

Secretary Gatchalian said the agency is currently processing pending requests of close to 300,000 FFPs which are mostly newly-received requests as the LGUs shift focus from rescue operations to relief distribution efforts.

“We are looking at another close to 300,000 pending requests. We have the goods and we just need to get these to them. We have two modes of dispatching them — some of them we deliver, some of them the LGUs pick-up,” Secretary Gatchalian told President Marcos, assuring the local chief executives that the balance will be settled as soon as possible.

The DSWD chief also thanked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for their swift action on the replenishment of the agency’s Quick Response Fund (QRF).

“I’d like to point out and thank Secretary Amenah Pangandaman because we got our fresh replenishment of our Quick Response Fund. That should keep our production center running through the next typhoons,” Secretary Gatchalian pointed out.

During the NDRRMC briefing, President Marcos expressed satisfaction over the government’s response so far, stressing that it must be sustained and ramped up as the country faces intensified effects of climate change.

“The way we approach these kinds of problems, so far, I am satisfied that the response of the government is at the level that is providing a great deal of relief to everyone. We just have to keep doing this. We just have to keep watching the weather. Again, the immediate concerns, the relief goods, health, and now the needs in schools,” President Marcos told key government officials present at the briefing.

As of press time, the southwest monsoon and Tropical Cyclones Crising, Dante, and Emong have affected a total of 1.1 million families or 3.88 million individuals from 4,455 barangays in all regions nationwide.

There are 45,168 families or 161,668 individuals currently taking temporary shelter in 1,192 evacuation centers.

Apart from FFPs, the DSWD is making sure that the other needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) are taken care of with non-food items such as family, hygiene, kitchen kits, modular tents, and water filtration kits.

The DSWD’s modern equipment such as the Mobile Command Center (MCC) and Mobile
Kitchen are also being deployed in areas that bore the brunt of the previous and ongoing weather systems.

President Marcos, accompanied by Secretary Gatchalian, saw how the DSWD FO – CALABARZON Mobile Kitchen is helping with the provision of hot meals to evacuees in his visit to the evacuation center at the Sta. Ana Barangay Hall Covered Court in San Mateo, Rizal on Thursday morning.

The other Cabinet officials who joined President Marcos in his visit were Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Teodoro Herbosa and Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. Local officials of San Mateo welcomed the Presidential team during the visit. (LSJ)

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