DSWD sends 3.2K ready to eat food stuffs to Visayas

By Connie Calipay

LEGAZPI CITY --- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 5 (Bicol) has sent 3,200 ready-to-eat food (RTEF) packs to DSWD 8 (Eastern Visayas) in response to the impacts of Severe Tropical Storm Crising and the enhanced southwest monsoon.

In a phone interview on Saturday, Claudio Villareal, chief of DSWD-5’s Disaster Response Management Division, said the augmentation support is part of the agency’s synchronized relief operations.

“The inter-regional support underscores DSWD’s strengthened coordination and commitment to effective disaster response, with DSWD-Bicol serving as a strategic logistical hub between Luzon and the Visayas. Its geographic location allows for the swift delivery of essential aid to hard-hit areas across the archipelago,” Villareal said.

He said the initiative is in line with the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to improve the country’s disaster preparedness and response systems, ensuring that no Filipino is left behind during disasters.

Each ready-to-eat food pack contains nutritious meals designed to sustain internally displaced persons (IDPs) and stranded passengers temporarily housed in evacuation centers and transit terminals.

He said the RTEF packs were dispatched from the DSWD-5 warehouse located in Pili, Camarines Sur.

Villareal said a distribution of RTEF packs is also scheduled in Pasacao, Camarines Sur on Saturday.

“We will be helping those stranded individuals in Pasacao Port. According to initial reports, there are 30 locally stranded individuals, but we will verify the actual number at the port. They are from San Pascual, Masbate,” he said. (PNA)

AUGMENTATION. Personnel of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 5 (Bicol) inventory ready-to-eat food packs being loaded into a truck for delivery to Eastern Visayas in this undated photo. The DSWD on Saturday (July 19, 2025) said its Bicol field office provided 3,200 food packs to DSWD 8 (Eastern Visayas) as part of the synchronized relief operations of the agency. (Photo courtesy of DSWD-5)