The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office VI (DSWD6) has already provided relief assistance amounting to P2.5 million in the five provinces in Western Visayas during its third day of relief operation.

As of November 9, 9 p.m., the amount of relief assistance amounted to P2,566,155. The amount of relief assistance increase since the number of requesting local government units swell to 30.

The P2,566,115 cost of relief assistance when translated to number of family packs provided to disaster survivors is 9,832. This figure only covers from day 1 to day 3 of the relief operation in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Negros Occidental and Iloilo.

A bigger slice of the P2,566,115 relief assistance  went to the city and province of Iloilo with P941,129 or 3,606 food packs. The Iloilo City government received 234 food packs out of the 3,606 distributed food packs.

The remaining 3,372 food packs were distributed to the towns of Leganes, Barotac Nuevo, Zarraga, Concepcion, and Oton. These five municipalities are only among of those affected by typhoon Yolanda which were able request assistance from DSWD Field Office 6.

DSWD Regional Director Evelyn B. Macapobre made efforts to personally distribute the relief goods to affected local government units to ensure that all disaster survivors will receive the needed immediate assistance.

The number of affected municipalities in the province of Iloilo, particularly in the northern part is expected to rise after the respective LGUs come up with their assessment on the devastation brought about by typhoon Yolanda.

The province of Negros Occidental with 17 affected municipalities and cities received P547,056 worth of relief assistance or 2,096 family packs.
The province of Antique with three affected municipalities namely Caluya, Laua-an and Patnongon received P203,580 worth of relief assistance or 780 family packs. So far, only these municipalities have requested for relief assistance.

While, there are 2,100 family packs allocated and ready for distribution in the province of Aklan. The relief assistance amounted to P548,000.

The province of Capiz and Roxas City also received P326,250 worth of relief assistance or 1,250 family packs.

Director Macapobre assures that the agency will continue to provide augmentation relief to local government units. The repacking of relief goods is ongoing with the assistance of Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Naval Reserve Center-Western Visayas, Bureau of Fire and Protection and non-government organizations. (DSWD/Maricar M. Calubiran)