THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Wednesday ordered its Field Office-11 (Davao Region) to provide immediate assistance to over 300 families who were affected by a fire incident at Purok San Vicente, Barangay Leon Garcia in Davao City.
Secretary Rex Gatchalian directed Field Office-11 director Vanessa Goc-Ong to closely coordinate with the local government unit for the provision of resource augmentation to address the needs of the affected families.
Based on initial reports, 357 families or 1,428 individuals were affected by the fire incident.
Personnel from the Field Office are now on the ground interviewing the affected families to validate the actual number of individuals.
Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Irene Dumlao, the agency’s data privacy officer and co-spokesperson, said the DSWD through its Field Office -11 is ready to assist the local government when necessary, such as food and other needs of the fire survivors.
“In keeping with the directive of Secretary Gatchalian to ensure that those affected by disasters and emergencies should be immediately assisted, the Field Office is now preparing various relief supplies such as family food packs and other non-food items to augment the resources of the LGU,” she said.
The Davao regional office has more than P86 million worth of stockpiles of relief supplies and standby funds ready to be used for disaster operations.