The regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has released a total of P19.7 million assistance through the provision of food packs to families who were affected by Typhoon Ruby in Western Visayas.

As of 9:00 AM today (December 10), the DSWD Field Office VI has already completed the distribution of 62,551 family packs and rice in the different affected municipalities and cities in the region through the local government units. A total of 25,866 food packs were distributed in the Province of Iloilo; 13,000 in Aklan; 2,050 in Antique; 3,609 in Negros Occidental; 1,850 in Capiz and 1,176 in Guimaras.

Of the six provinces of the region, Iloilo has the most affected municipalities with 44; Negros Occidental, 32; Antique; 18; Aklan, 17; Capiz, 16 and Guimaras 5. They translate to a total of 88,526 families or 349,267 individuals. Most of these families were preepmtively evacuated as part of the disaster-preparedness measures implemented by the government due to earlier warnings on possible storm surges and landslides.

There were a total of 1,730 evacuation centers that served 65,541 families across the region. As of this writing, all the evacuation centers are already closed and the evacuees have already returned to their respective homes./dswd6/Wenna B. Bendol (Photo credit: Pantawid Pamilya Antique team)