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NewsTranscript
00:00We are counting on the help of those who were affected by the typhoon Christine. We have with us the Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian. Good morning, Secretary.
00:11Good morning, Igan. Good morning to you and to all the viewers and listeners of your program. Thank you for having me.
00:18Secretary, there are still places where you are having a hard time and the government agencies are not able to provide help because the flood is still not receding. Where are these places?
00:28Igan, you have to remember, I just want to remind our listeners and viewers that the last mile distribution, the distribution from our warehouse to their constituents
00:39is the responsibility of the local government units. If we remember, social welfare is devolved and the local government units are responsible for it.
00:50The role of the DSWD is to support our local government units if they are short of goods.
00:57We have our goods in our warehouse. Before the typhoon Christine hit, before it hit, in Bicol alone, we had 170,000 pieces of family food packs.
01:11It's spread to all our warehouses everywhere in Bicol region. What's happening is, our local government units will go to our warehouses to get the goods and bring it there.
01:23That distribution is continuous. Igan, we are not the ones distributing directly to the constituents, but the local government units are doing it.
01:35Have you received any news that the LGUs are having a hard time distributing, Secretary?
01:40Igan, actually, they have a lot of requests, but we are waiting for them to receive and pick up. I told you earlier that we have 170,000 before the typhoon Christine hit.
01:50They are only picking up 50,000 from various local government units.
01:55Like yesterday, I talked to the acting governor of Albay, Vice Governor Glenda. He said that the water level in Albay is decreasing, but they need more time to get their goods from our warehouses.
02:10I also talked to Congressman Elrey Villafuerte the other day before the typhoon hit, and they were earmarked for 50,000 family food packs.
02:20They are only picking up little by little. They can't do it all at once. Like they said, there are areas with high water levels and their focus is on rescuing.
02:29Yes. Aside from the orders of the President yesterday, the priority is to rescue the residents in the DSWD, especially in areas with high water levels. How is this going to be done, Secretary?
02:43Igan, the rescue is under the local government unit and the Office of the Civil Defense.
02:50The DSWD, our mandate is to make sure that the affected families have enough food.
02:58We, in the DSWD, as I said yesterday, that the DSWD is ready. In fact, there are warehouses in the whole region, around 170, around 120.
03:11We are ready to distribute to our local government units. We are continuously asking the local government units to get their goods.
03:20The instruction of the President to me yesterday is to make sure that we don't run out of food.
03:25While we are distributing to the local government units, we already have goods that will go to the vehicle from our repacking center here in Pasay.
03:33Another 50,000 is en route as we speak and we will continue to send it to that area.
03:39Yes. Do you have any data on how many families were affected and are in the evacuation center, Secretary?
03:46At this point, we're treating this as a whole of province issue. They may not be in the evacuation center, but they still need help.
03:55We are not choosing if they are in the evacuation center or outside the evacuation center.
04:00Right now, the data is still moving because as you said, the local government units have just entered different areas to register.
04:08Many of them, like you said, did not go to the evacuation unit but became victims.
04:14According to our records, we are using the basis of the request of the local government units.
04:20Right now, the total request in the whole region, regionwide, is around 200,000 family food packs and we are ready to supply that.
04:29Okay. Thank you very much DSW Secretary Rex Gatchalian. Be careful.
04:33Thank you very much. Good morning.