The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) assured on Saturday its readiness to respond to victims of calamities resulting from increased activity of the La Nina phenomenon.

This is in line with the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to continue providing assistance to families affected by calamities, Assistant Social Welfare and Development Secretary Irene Dumlao said in a news forum in Quezon City.

“(Sa) La Nina, nakahanda naman ang DSWD, because we still have more than 1.5 million family food packs, strategically prepositioned across the country,” Dumlao said.

Dumlao also enumerated the assistance extended by the agency particularly on the successive typhoons that hit the country. She said DSWD will report details on the total number of family food packs (FFPs) handed over to affected communities.

Since the onslaught of super typhoons this year, DSWD has augmented more than 5.2 million FFPs.

The agency is presently responding to the Mt. Kanlaon eruption in Negros Island. It has so far extended more than P14.7 million in humanitarian assistance together with its partners.

Latest reports show more than 10,000 families or over 42,000 individuals in 25 barangays in Western and Central Visayas are affected by the calamity, Dumlao said.

More than 4,600 families are temporarily sheltered in 28 evacuation centers in those regions. Presidential News Desk