P19.4-M aid provided to Mayon-affected families: DSWD

FILE: The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has reported that as of Tuesday, it has extended PHP19.39 million in combined assistance to families affected by Mayon Volcano’s phreatic eruption. (Photo By Top1963 / Tryfon Topalidis – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has reported that as of Tuesday, it has extended PHP19.39 million in combined assistance to families affected by Mayon Volcano’s phreatic eruption.

In its Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) Report No. 14, the department broke the amount down into PHP16.22 million from DSWD; PHP124,605 from local government units; and PHP3.04 million from non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The combined assistance went to the provision of relief items, consisting of food packs, for those who have fled to evacuation centers or to the homes of their relatives after the alert status for Mt. Mayon was raised to level 4 on Monday.

According to the report, Mayon has affected 12,214 families or 48,614 persons from 39 barangays in Albay. Of the figure, 7,455 families or 28,846 persons are taking shelter in 29 evacuation centers, while 1,518 families or 6,850 persons are staying with relatives in Camalig, Daraga, Malilipot and Santo Domingo.

DSWD Officer-in-Charge Emmanuel Leyco earlier said that they have activated the Quick Response Team from their field office and additional teams were deployed to help monitor the affected population.

He also urged families who are still within Mayon’s danger zone to leave and proceed to evacuation centers, and to wear protective clothing and masks to avoid inhaling volcanic ash.