DSWD transitions to cash aid for calamity-stricken families

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Davao Region is now implementing the provision of emergency cash transfer assistance to families affected by weather disturbances in the region.

DSWD Regional Director Vanessa Goc-Ong said there were three major calamities early this year that hit the region: the shear line, the trough of the low-pressure area, and consequently, due to rains weakening the soil, the Masara landslide.

She said that as an initial response, they were able to provide 474,523 family food packs with a budget amounting to P318.4 million.

In conjunction with family food packs, a total of 3,322 non-food items amounting to P7,073,859 were also given to the affected families. These include family kits, modular tents, sleeping kits, hygiene kits, jerry cans, family tents, and kitchen kits.

“We provided for the family food packs at that time when the incident was very fresh, kay lubog ang community, sarado mga tindahan and walang mabilihan (the community is submerged, stores are closed, and there’s no place to buy goods) so ang family food packs ang most responsive response at that time,” Goc-ong said during her guesting at the recent Kapehan sa Davao at SM City Davao organized by the Philippine Information Agency.

“Because humupa na po ang baha, nag-open na mga stores, nakabalik na sa normal activities ating families, we have now transitioned from food to cash; our cash assistance is in the form of emergency cash transfers,” Goc-ong said.

(Since the flood has subsided, the stores have opened, and families have returned to their normal activities)

The DSWD had already implemented the Emergency Cash Transfer in Davao del Norte with a target of 70,000 beneficiaries, but there are plans to increase the number of beneficiaries based on data from the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO).

“As of today, we started in Davao Oriental. Target beneficiaries will reach more than 100,000 based on the DROMIC report. In Davao de Oro, we are also facilitating so we can start the distribution of assistance so simultaneous na in all provinces,” Goc-Ong said.

In Davao Oriental, Goc-ong revealed that the cash distribution commenced on March 4. Based on the PDRRMO DROMIC report, more than 100,000 families in the province were expected to receive the cash assistance. She added that in Davao de Oro, they are currently facilitating the final list of beneficiaries, as there were also some changes to their initial list to officially start the payout.

Goc-ong stressed that all families, whether affected directly or indirectly by the disaster, will receive the said cash assistance.

“We emphasized that those families who really experienced flooding, vis-à-vis the families who were hampered from going to and from work because of the landslide, their pananom (crops) were flooded were still indirectly affected by the disaster, so they should be qualified also regardless if ang bahay talaga nila ay hindi nabahaan (their houses were not flooded),” she explained.