The Department of Social Welfare and Development Cordillera has assured the public that it remains committed to provide immediate and fair disaster augmentation efforts.
The agency gave the assurance after the rise of demands for the DSWD to provide food and non-food relief assistance to communities affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We are doing our best to ensure that we are able to provide efficient service to our communities. Even before we received requests from our local government units, we have already prepared and prepositioned goods in the various provinces in the Region,” DSWD-CAR OIC Director Leo L. Quintilla said.
As part of the response cluster, the DSWD is mandated to provide augmentation support to various local government units in providing programs and services to individuals and families who have been affected by disaster or calamities for them to be able to withstand and recover from the impact of the incident. Under the Local Government Code, the DSWD is mandated to provide technical assistance and resource augmentation to its local counterparts and other stakeholders in the form of capacity building trainings, learning exchange forum, and provision of relief commodities.
“The LGUs are expected to provide for the needs of their communities first. Once their resources are depleted, they can now request for augmentation from the DSWD-CAR. Upon receipt of request and other necessary documents, we will review the request for possible augmentation. We will provide the request as they comply with our requirements and we have enough available goods,” Quintilla added.
As of March 31, the DSWD-CAR is maintaining 11,803 family food packs that are ready for augmentation. The field office also has a standby quick response fund of P3,010,009.95.
Quintilla underscored the importance of fairness in the provision of services following the receipt of reports on the alleged partiality during relief distribution.
He said the DSWD is doing its best to respond to requests as fast as possible, but asked for help in ensuring rightful beneficiaries will receive what is due to them.
“Efficient and fair service delivery could not be done by DSWD alone. This is a partnership among the LGUs, civil society organizations, the public, and the Department.”
As of March 31, 53, 272,748.75 worth of assistance have already been released. – DSWD release
