DSWD prepares for La Niña

Even if the El Niño phenomenon continues to batter the country, the Department of Social Welfare and Development on Thursday said it is now preparing for the onset of the La Niña phenomenon, which is expected to happen this June.

In a media forum at the DSWD Central Office’s New Press Center in Quezon City, Assistant Secretary for Disaster Response Management Group Irene Dumlao said this is to ensure that its disaster preparedness and response strategies are in place to mitigate the possible effects of the wet season.

“The Buong Bansa Handa Project has been approved... the framework agreement. The procurement process is also ongoing because what we want to happen is for the assistance to be immediately delivered when the rainy season arrives,” Dumlao said.

Dumlao, who also serves as the DSWD spokesperson, stressed that the “Buong Bansa Handa” project will establish two parallel supply chain mechanisms for disaster preparedness and response which will enhance the capacity of the Department to meet the needs of families in various disaster-stricken areas.

The first mechanism features a national and local government-driven supply chain that will improve the production capacities and processes of the DSWD’s National Resource Operations Center in Pasay City, the Visayas Disaster Resource Center in Cebu, and warehouse and storage facilities across the 16 DSWD Field Offices.

On the other hand, DSWD’s second mechanism will forge partnerships with established large and small groceries, supermarkets, manufacturers, and distributors to leverage their technical expertise and resources to create a private sector-driven supply chain.

Meanwhile, Dumlao said the agency is monitoring the relief supplies and ensuring that there are enough family food packs (FFPs) and non-food items (NFIs) that are prepositioned in the different warehouses in the country.

“We have an inventory, of course, of all our warehouses — our last-mile facilities so we can ensure that all those facilities have sufficient FFPs and NFIs. Likewise, in our hubs, we are monitoring the procurement to ensure the availability of supplies so as not to hamper the production of our FFPs and NFIs,” the DSWD spokesperson explained.

As of 29 April, a total of 387,124 FFPs have been prepositioned in the 10 DSWD hubs while 602,113 boxes of food packs were sent and 545,526 FFPs in the 849 last-mile facilities across the country.