DAVAO CITY – Local chief executives are strictly prohibited to facilitate the prepositioning and distribution of relief goods from national-led relief program.
This was stressed in yesterday’s press conference of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) following the opening ceremony of the DROMIC Summit 2019 held at the Pinnacle Hotel, Davao City.
“This is the directive of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte instructing the DSWD to handle the prepositioning and distribution of relief goods instead of coursing it through local government officials”, Budiongan said.
He added that the directive of the President rooted from the experience of local officials using the national-led relief program for partisan political activity.
DSWD XI Regional Director Mercedita Jabagat said that while the intention is good, however, it was difficult for the limited DSWD regional manpower to handle these activities. Seeking and getting the assistance of the LGUs contributed much on the regional workforce to do the distribution efficiently.
Meanwhile, the DSWD officials believed that this directive could only be temporary as the country is currently at the election campaign period.
“We need to follow the President but we hope that this is just temporary as we really need the resources of the LGUs”, Budiongan stressed.
To further improve skills and capabilities of the DSWD manpower focused on management of disaster information and management, the department gathered around 50 personnel nationwide in Davao City yesterday for the first Disaster Response Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) Summit with the theme “Enhancing Community Resilience thru Innovations in Information Technology and Data Sharing”.
This bureau of the DSWD has established the Predictive Analytics for Humanitarian Response (PAHR), a technological tool that make predictions on potential disaster events to prepare humanitarian response using mathematical theories, scientific process, and spatial technologies based on historical data.
