Disaster teams in all Field Offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) along Typhoon Chedeng’s path are ready to assist local government units (LGUs) in relief operations and management of evacuation centers once the typhoon makes landfall on Sunday.
“I have instructed all Field Offices along Typhoon Chedeng’s path to intensify their preparations to ensure the safety and well-being of families that will be affected,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said.
DSWD-Field Offices have also coordinated with the Department of National Defense (DND) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the provision of additional transportation assets to ensure the speedy movement of relief augmentation to areas that will be hit by the typhoon.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), the DSWD-Field Office also activated help desks in bus terminals to assist those who may be stranded.
In Bicol Region, the DSWD-Field Office reported that they have 13,000 sacks of NFA rice, 5,000 Family Kits, and P50,000 worth of canned goods ready for repacking.
The Field Offices also continue to preposition family food packs and other relief supplies at the city and municipal levels.
At the national level, DSWD has been closely coordinating and working 24/7 with the Disaster Response Cluster under the National Disaster Risk Reduction Council (NDRRMC) to monitor the typhoon, as well as prepare for its landfall.
The Cluster is composed of the DSWD, DND, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the Philippine Red Cross, among others.
Under the Cluster, DSWD leads the Camp Coordination and Camp Management, Protection, and Food and Non-Food Clusters.
According to the Disaster Response Cluster, there will be some 5,619,221 families that may be affected by ‘Chedeng’ in Regions I, II, III, IV-A, IV-B, V, VIII, CAR, and the National Capital Region (NCR).
In preparation, the Department already prepositioned 309,121 family food packs amounting to P106.6 million.
It also has transferred stand by funds amounting to P19.72 million to Field Offices I, II, III, IV-A, IV-B, V, VIII, NCR and CAR for the purchase of emergency relief supplies. Likewise, the Department has an available Quick Response Fund (QRF) worth P913,751,855.
Additional QRF of P18 million has been sub-alloted to Field Offices I, II, III, IV A and B, V, VIII and CAR.