The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), as one of the members of the El Niño Task Force, has come up with an action plan to help families who are affected and will be affected by El Niño Phenomenon that is prevailing in the country and which is expected to last until June 2019 (based on PAGASA Climate Outlook).

The DSWD proposes for a ₱4.6 billion intervention plan targeting a total of 274,778 poor farmer-families as identified by the Department of Agriculture (DA). 

The proposed services and interventions include the provision of rice subsidy amounting to ₱1,758,579,200.00 billion and Cash-for-Work (CFW) assistance costing ₱2,794,549,640.00, covering a four (4)-month period in time where the poor farmers could have recovered from its agricultural production.

Under the rice subsidy, a family can avail four (4) sacks of rice at one (1) sack per month. The CFW assistance could be accessed by the poor farmers through engagement in productive community works in exchange of cash at the rate of seventy-five (75) percent of the Current Daily Regional Minimum Wage Rate as provided by the NWPC-DOLE as of April 2019 and for a forty (40)-day period at ten (10) days per month for four (4) months.

The Department assures the public that its current capacities to respond to El Niño is still sufficient. It has a total standby resources comprising of DSWD Central Office Quick Response Funds, Standby Funds of Field Offices, Family Food Packs (FFPs), and Food and Non-Food Items (Food and NFIs) amounting to ₱2.2 billion, with ₱1.8 billion allocated to the Central Office and ₱441 million allocated to the Field Offices.

The Department also continues to work with other agencies in monitoring the effects of El Niño in order to identify additional interventions that may be needed. ###