No food supplies wasted in Davao – DSWD

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) yesterday said the remaining relief items stored in its Davao City warehouse were being distributed to eligible residents of Region 11 who were displaced by Typhoon Pablo.

“We are not letting the food supplies go to waste,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman told The STAR, as she denied news reports that the relief goods, particularly rice, were not distributed, leaving them spoiled and wasted.

Soliman said the DSWD warehouse in Davao City currently stores two batches of food supplies – one, the remaining food relief assistance that the department is set to distribute to Pablo victims until the end of August, and the other, some 300 sacks of rice with 50 pre-positioned food packs that are on standby in case of another disaster.

“They must have thought that the 300 sacks of rice there are for the Pablo victims,” Soliman said.

DSWD regional offices are required to maintain a certain level of stocks of family food packs at a given time to be distributed during emergencies or disasters.

“The sacks of rice that were seen by the crew of a TV station stored at the DSWD warehouse in Panacan are part of the stockpile maintained by the DSWD Region 11 office,” said DSWD Assistant Secretary Camilo Gudmalin.

Gudmalin added that the sacks of rice are not distributed, as they form part of the DSWD’s continuing assistance to local governments that may be affected by emergencies or disasters in the future.

Gudmalin said Pablo victims belonging to “vulnerable” groups such as pregnant and lactating mothers, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, solo household heads, and chronically ill household heads will continue to receive food assistance until the end of August, subject to their assessment.

Food assistance for Pablo victims was supposed to end last June, but the DSWD extended it for two months, but only for the “vulnerable” groups.