Ilocos fire victims get DSWD assistance

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), through its Field Office-1 (Ilocos Region), extended assistance to stall owners and market vendors who were affected by the January 11 fire that devastated the City Auxiliary Market in San Fernando, La Union.

DSWD spokesman Romel Lopez said on Tuesday that the Ilocos regional office provided resource augmentation to the concerned local government unit (LGU) to meet the needs of their affected constituents.

“The DSWD augmented 1,500 family food packs to the city government of San Fernando so that they will be able to provide additional assistance to the affected market vendors whose stalls were razed to the ground,” said Lopez.

The DSWD’s Field Office Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) has teamed up with the local government of Taytay, Rizal, to provide assistance to families affected by the January 15 fire that burned a residential area in San Juan village.

About 43 families, or 200 people, lost their houses in last Monday’s fire and are currently staying at the LGU’s temporary shelter at the Batasin covered court.

According to a report by DSWD Calabarzon Director Barry Chua to the DSWD Central Office, the Field Office has already worked with the Rizal Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office to provide family food packs from prepositioned supplies in their warehouse.

“The Field Office, under Director Barry Chua, is ready to assist the affected families. We assure them and our counterparts in the municipality of Taytay that the DSWD will deliver food packs to ensure that all affected families will receive enough assistance,” Lopez said.

Lopez stated that the involved field offices would continue to be in close contact with the impacted LGUs to establish alternative measures to assist the victims in recovering from their losses and returning to their normal lives as soon as possible.