RELIEF ASSISTANCE. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributes Thursday (March 25, 2021) cash and relief assistance to fire victims in Barangay Baliwasan, Zamboanga City. The cash aid is part of the 'whole of government approach' of President Rodrigo Duterte and through the initiative of Senator Christopher Lawrence 'Bong' Go. (PNA photo by R.G. Antonet A. Go)
ZAMBOANGA CITY--The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) distributed relief aid Thursday to the victims of a recent fire that hit a coastal community here.
DSWD Assistant Secretary Jade Jamolod said the assistance is part of the "whole of government approach" in alleviating the plight of people affected by calamity.
Jamolod said the fire victims received PHP5,000 cash assistance and food items, medicines, and hygiene kits from the DSWD and the office of Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.
Eight tablets and eight bikes were also raffled to the beneficiaries.
At least 411 families were displaced by the fire that hit a coastal community Saturday in Barangay Baliwasan.
The Zamboanga City Fire District said the fire started in an unoccupied house that rapidly engulfed the nearby houses, mostly made of light materials.
“In five days' time, we immediately gave the assistance (to the affected families,” Jamolod said.
He said the fire victims would also receive PHP3,000 emergency housing assistance in the next few days.
Ruth Guiran, a widow with two children, said the assistance meant that "the national government did not abandon us." (PNA)
