Mayon Volcano (File photo)
MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has distributed family food packs (FFPs) as take-home assistance for some 2,106 families who returned home after nearly four months at the evacuation centers due to Mt. Mayon’s restiveness.
DSWD Spokesperson Romel Lopez on Monday said the DSWD Bicol Regional Field Office-5 (FO-5) assisted in the decampment of the evacuees from Malilipot, Tabaco and Camalig, Albay on Oct. 6 and 7, except for the 189 families in Camalig who were not allowed to return to their homes due to their proximity to the six-kilometer permanent danger zone.
Lopez, who is also the Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications, said the Bicol regional office also released the seventh wave of food assistance covering the period of Sept. 25 to Oct. 9 to the affected local government units (LGUs) prior to the decampment of the evacuees.
The second tranche of the emergency cash transfer will be provided to the affected families, regardless of decampment, as part of the early recovery services of the DSWD, according to Bicol regional office Director Norman Laurio.
DSWD Bicol has provided a total PHP236.4 million in assistance to some 5,841 affected families inside and outside evacuation centers in the seven affected cities and municipalities of Albay province since the start of the evacuation in June.
“DSWD Field Office 5 will continue to work with the Camalig Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office in monitoring the families who will remain in evacuation centers,” Lopez said.
“We are ready to provide them with food and non-food relief items and cash assistance until the situation in Albay becomes better,” he added. (PNA)
