Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian on Friday ordered the agency’s Disaster Response Management Group (DRMG) to ensure the full automation of the inventory management of the Disaster Response Command Center (DRCC).

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced the DRCC in his third State of the Nation Address (SoNA) as “the central hub for the government’s disaster response effort.”

“We have to perfect the DRCC automation of the inventory management or the Automated Data Management System for Inventory. The important thing is we pre-position relief goods with an aggressive digitalized system for inventory,” Gatchalian told DRMG officials shortly after the SoNA last Monday, 22 July.

Gatchalian emphasized that the prepositioning of relief goods is an innovation of President Marcos.

“This is the vision of the President. We just put this [prepositioning] into action. It was started by then Secretary Erwin Tulfo and we built on it,” Gatchalian said in a

pre-SoNA interview with the People’s Television Network.

In his third SoNA, President Marcos acknowledged that the government has established infrastructures that serve as protection and centers for coordination, especially for the delivery of services and relief goods.

“Within the past two years, almost a hundred evacuation centers have already been built. While in January of this year, we started the operations of our Disaster Response Command Center, which shall serve as the central hub for the government’s disaster response efforts,” the President said.

Since its launch in January, the DRCC has served as a central hub for disaster monitoring, reporting, and coordination of preparedness and response efforts.

The DRCC utilizes advanced information and communication equipment to ensure seamless collaboration between the DSWD Central Office, DSWD Field Offices, member-agencies of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), and other stakeholders.