The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), under instructions from President Rodrigo R. Duterte, continues to provide support and technical assistance to local government units to hasten the implementation of the Presidential Financial Assistance (5KPFA) for the Typhoon “Yolanda”-affected households with damaged houses in Regions VI, NIR, VII and VIII.

A total of 196,258 households with damaged houses are targeted to avail of the P5,000 financial assistance from the Office of the President with Region VI having the most number of household-beneficiaries at 126,261 households, followed by Regions VIII (61,916), NIR (7,713), and VII (368).

As of March 23, DSWD field offices from the said regions have already validated 79,581 households, of which 54,277 households have been evaluated as qualified beneficiaries.

On March 1, the Department has already conducted its cash assistance distribution to 211 household-beneficiaries in Tacloban City at the Leyte Pantawid Provincial Office which was graced by DSWD OIC-Undersecretary for Operations-Protective Services Hope V. Hervilla.

In addition, the DSWD also validated the following:

• 843 household-beneficiaries for the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) cash card opening, 221 beneficiaries in 6 municipalities in Region VI, 420 beneficiaries in 3 municipalities in NIR and 211 beneficiaries in 4 municipalities in Region VIII;

• 107 household-beneficiaries in 6 municipalities in the Province of Cebu, in Region VII for direct cash payout by April 15, 2017 located in isolated areas and with no access to Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and its bank partners; and

Lastly, complete receipt of assistance by all beneficiaries is expected by the end of June 2017.

Update on ESCAP for ‘Nina’ and ‘Lawin’ survivors

Meanwhile, the implementation of the Emergency Shelter Cash Assistance Program (ESCAP) for typhoon “Lawin” and “Nina”-affected households is still ongoing in all affected regions in Luzon.

For Lawin-affected areas in Regions CAR, I, II, and III, a total of 161,553 households with damaged houses are targeted to be provided with ESCAP amounting to P807.76 million.

As of March 22, some 143,060 household-beneficiaries or 89% of the target number of households have already received the initial ESCAP at P5,000 amounting to P715 million, while the remaining 18,493 household-beneficiaries is expected to receive their assistance by the end of March.

For ‘Nina’ survivors in Regions CALABARZON, MIMAROPA and V, a total of 122,149 household-beneficiaries amounting to P610, 745,890 have been funded using the Department’s Quick Response Fund (QRF) prioritizing beneficiaries with totally damaged houses.

Based on recent reports, a total of 13,847 household-beneficiaries have already received initial Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) amounting to P69,235,000.

In addition, the DSWD Field Office in Region V has already tapped the Food-for-Work (FFW) program to support the shelter repair and rehabilitation of small-scale infrastructures. To date, a total of 50,087 food packs costing P17,915,174.20 have been distributed to approximately 25,044 families who were engaged in the FFW.

Assistance to earthquake survivors

In another disaster-related report, the 6.7 magnitude earthquake that hit the CARAGA region has already damaged a total of 10,873 houses, of which, 522 houses totally destroyed while the remaining 10,351 houses are partially destroyed.

The DSWD has already provided relief assistance amounting to P17,283,438.69 in the form of food and non-food items, while local government units (LGUs) provided a total of P2,742,838.00 worth of assistance, and P P1,716,273.50 from Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).

Aside from the given assistance, an initial amount of P16,627,800 was released to cover the ESA and Cash-for-Work (CFW) requirement of 518 households with damaged houses has been released to DSWD-CARAGA last March 8. ###