THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Cordillera, in cooperation with the Police Regional Office (PRO), agreed to store food and none food items used for relief purposes during and after a disaster in police facilities in the region.
Leo Quintilla, DSWD Cordillera director, said guidelines were issued to ensure all prepositioned goods of the department shall now be stored in police and military facilities for easy storage and mobilization.
"It is now a guideline for the DSWD to preposition food and none food items in military camps and PNP neutral grounds, and we were able to do the immediate response because of the needs, which is why we had an agreement that despite the prepositioning of food and none food items, it would still be DSWD who will manage the operations in support with the local government units," Quintilla said.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have always been supporting DSWD in previous disaster relief operations but have strengthened their partnership through the agreement.
"We are already being supported by the PNP in many ways in preparing our relief food packs and at the same time delivery, and what we did is to formalize so that we are now concretizing the agreements for a clearer operational tasks and rules," Quintilla said.
Quintilla added that in Apayao, for example, last Typhoon Ramon, the governor commended the DSWD, PNP and the Philippine Army for the efficient delivery of response and the immediate recovery of those affected by the typhoon who were provided with propositioned food packs which contributed to the immediate response to the affected communities.
"Two days before, we already had around 700 food packs and when the typhoon struck and the floods came, we already delivered 8000 food packs through the help of the PNP and the AFP," Quintilla said.
The initial delivery was conducted through land delivery and during an aerial assessment, the Rapid Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis team identified certain communities that have not been reached by the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council support but was eventually reached after one day, Quintilla added.