At the onset of tropical storm Enteng, several parts of the country were damaged, which forced thousands of Filipinos to take shelter in evacuation centers.
At the situation briefing on Wednesday, September 4, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged various government agencies to quicken their response to the affected and displaced victims of calamities. The briefing at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) is part of the President’s whole-of-government approach to address the current situation.
One of the focuses of their response is the stockpiling of food and non-food items, which is monitored by the Department of Welfare and Social Development (DSWD). Their data report indicated that around 18,000 families are currently in evacuation centers.
“Before Enteng struck, we were able to restore our national stockpile to 1.7 million family food packs spread across the country. So now we’re doing both response and stockpiling kasi we’ll be using up our stockpile in those said regions. But we’re confident (na) mahahabol naman namin ‘yon,” DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said.
The other night, they deployed 133,000 family food packs, as per their report to the President. He also mentioned that they are currently processing another 100,000 for the packs that had just arrived.
Secretary Gatchalian added that they are looking at closing the Enteng response at 250,000 family food packs altogether, as they are continuously deploying, packing, and stockpiling.
“For the information of everyone, the reason that this has become an issue about our stockpiling is after Carina, basically naubos ang ating stock. Kaya namili ulit ang DSWD ng mga food and non-food items para maging handa kapag sa susunod ito na ‘yon. Ito na yung prinocure. Pagkatapos ng aksyon natin sa Carina, nawalan yung mga warehouse natin, naubos talaga,” President Marcos Jr. explained.
“We had to put the supplementary budget a little bit because that was our quota for the rest of the year. Pero naubos, wala tayong magagawa, we have to respond. And that is what Secretary Rex is explaining to us right now,” he added.
During the onset of Typhoon Carina, the food packs were wiped out in three weeks. However, the DSWD Secretary assured that they were able to restock the food pile upon the President’s directive and supplemental cash from the NDRRMC.
President Marcos Jr. urged the departments to not lose awareness, as calamities should always be expected. He added that stockpiling and preparations for calamities must be an ongoing activity.
“Keep that in mind, after everything that we do for Enteng is continuous. The storm will come in. Mag wi-withdraw nanaman tayo, we just wait for the storm to pass before we can go in again,” he said.
