DSWD spent P2.6M for calamity victims

Around 1,220 families and another 90 individuals in Cebu City and in other parts of Central Visayas have benefited from the P2.6 million-worth of cash and other types of assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development since in October last year.

Among those who received financial and other types of assistance from the DSWD are fire victims from the cities of Mandaue, Cebu, Tagbilaran and in the towns of Consolacion in Cebu and Calape in Bohol.

Aside from the fire victims, the DSWD has also granted cash and food assistance to those 151 families who were forced to vacate from their houses due to the armed conflict between the New People's Army rebels and government forces in Siaton, Negros Oriental.

Those families whose houses were destroyed by a waterspout in Talisay City were also granted cash assistance, according to Vilma Rago, a senior social worker of the DSWD regional office-7.

Rago said the DSWD has disbursed a total of P2,656,404 for its relief augmentation program to victims of calamities and disasters in different parts of the region from October 2004 up to August this year.

Out of the total amount, the DSWD had spent P970,395 for the 623 families and another 85 individuals after their houses were razed by fires in the three cities and two towns of the region.

Aside from the cash, the DSWD also provides the calamity victims of food and other commodities, particularly housing materials to help them re-build their houses. - Rene U. Borromeo