By Zaldy De Layola
MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), through its field office in Negros Island Region, is ready to assist families affected by the latest moderate explosive eruption of Mt. Kanlaon on Thursday evening.
Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao of the DSWD’s Disaster Response and Management Group (DRMG) said the department has a newly inaugurated mechanized production system at the Visayas Disaster Resource Operations Center (VDRC) in Mandaue City, Cebu which can produce large quantities of family food packs (FFPs) that can easily be dispensed to affected localities in the Negros Island.
“With the mechanized packing system, under extreme cases, we could produce at around 30,000 family food boxes a day. At ang kahalagahan niyan, mabilis tayo na makakapagpahatid ng tulong o tumugon sa pangangailangan ng mga kababayan natin (With this, we can immediately provide assistance or respond to the needs of our countrymen) in case of massive and simultaneous disasters happening or affecting our country,” the DSWD spokesperson said in a radio interview.
The DSWD spokesperson said the VDRC currently maintains more than 379,000 FFPs ready for distribution in the Visayas and Mindanao. The DSWD NIR field office, on the other hand, has over 222,000 food packs available in its spokes and last mile warehouses.
She said the VDRC supplies the goods that the DSWD prepositions in various parts of Visayas and Mindanao, pending the establishment of the Mindanao Disaster Resource Center (MDRC).
The MDRC, according to Dumlao, is now in the pipeline for the first phase of construction this year with PHP500 million in initial appropriations under the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“So, makikita niyo talagang pinaglalaanan ng pondo ng ating pamahalaan ‘yung pagpapalakas sa ating isinasagawa na paghahanda at pag-produce at pag-preposition ng mga goods para mas mapabuti pa ang ating disaster response operation (you can see that our government really allocates funds for disaster preparedness, as well as the production and prepositioning of goods to enhance our disaster response operation),” she said.
The DSWD is also in the process of adapting new technologies to strengthen its disaster response capacity, including the introduction of robotics in its production line, and an enhanced inventory system for proper monitoring of food boxes.
The continuous improvement on the DSWD’s disaster response capabilities is aligned with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr’s directive to guarantee the efficiency and omnipresence of the department in times of disasters. (PNA)
