Butuan City– As the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) announced the coming of the La Niña season, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Caraga already prepared a Disaster Plan which includes stockpiling of food and non-food items, prepositioning of goods, capability building of human resources, and inter-agency coordination and networking.

As to date, a total of 12,380 food packs are readily available at DSWD Warehouse located at Brgy. Tiniwisan, Butuan City. These are ready for augmentation to the local government units.

The Field Office also ensured that there is an on-going procurement of 17, 620 family food packs.

Prepositioning of food items to LGUs identified as geographically difficult to reach and potential to be isolated in times of disaster already started.  As of date, 2,000 are already prepositioned.

In addition, stockpiled non-food items worth Php2,378,018.33 are also available in the mentioned warehouse.

Monitoring of standby and stockpile goods are conducted weekly by the Field Office.

Regional Director Minda B. Brigoli assured the public that DSWD is doing necessary preparations for the upcoming rainy season. ###(ABEGAIL R. ALVAREZ/Social Marketing Unit/DSWD Field Office Caraga)