To expedite the early recovery and rehabilitation phase for the affected families of Typhoon Ompong, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has released the guidelines for the implementation of the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) program to assist in the shelter reconstruction of typhoon survivors.

Through the ESA program, the Department is expected to provide P30,000 to typhoon victims with totally-damaged houses, and P10,000 to families with partially-damaged houses in Regions I, II, III, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

The ESA will be distributed via direct cash payout to beneficiaries through authorized Special Disbursing Officers (SDO) of concerned DSWD Field Offices (FOs).

“We are coordinating with local government units to determine the beneficiaries for the ESA program, as well as, to ensure that the documentary requirements of the beneficiaries are completed. Our social workers will review the documents thoroughly to ensure that only the rightful beneficiaries will recieve the much needed assistance,” DSWD Secretary Virginia N. Orogo said.

In addition, DSWD Sec. Orogo said that managing complaints on the ESA implementation will go through the e-Reklamo platform, a web-based complaints management ticket system specifically used to monitor grievances regarding the DSWD’s disaster response operations.

“The DSWD welcomes feedbacks regarding our disaster response operations from our beneficiaries and the public, in order to improve the delivery of programs and services of the agency and ensure transparency in our operations,” she said.

To date, there are 209,908 damaged houses reported in Regions I, II, III, and CAR, of which, 14,729 houses are totally damaged and 195,179 houses are partially damaged. ###