The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assistant secretary Irene Dumlao detailed the department’s plans of building a disaster resource hub this morning at the Saturday News Forum Philippines held in Quezon City.

With two hubs already dedicated to supplying goods for Luzon and Visayas, the Disaster Response Management Group allocated P500 million to erect a hub to provide for Mindanao.

Dumlao emphasized the importance of constructing a hub to individually cater to each of the three island groups as part of the department’s Buong Bansa Handa Program.

“We need to strengthen the production and prepositioning of goods to support immediate relief assistance at times of calamities and massive simultaneous disasters in the country,” the assistant secretary stressed in Filipino.

The Buong Bansa Handa Program was a project first initiated by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos’ call to strengthen the country’s supply chain amidst natural calamities during his State of the Nation Address in 2023.

The resource hub set to be established in the Caraga region is part of the DSWD’s two-pronged approach of developing warehouse facilities centered around government agencies, while also garnering assistance from private sector providers

In a separate interview on 18 September 2025, Dumlao noted that under the directions of department secretary Rex Gatchalian, the DSWD’s disaster preparation must be ready 365 days a year.

“We always ensure that there are family food packs (FFPs) and non-food items for our kababayans,” she added.