ILOILO City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 6 assured help for the families affected by the oil spill in Caluya, Antique.
DSWD-6 requested P47 million as initial fund for the emergency cash transfer (ECT) program. Each of the 7,198 oil spill-affected families will receive more or less P5,000 in cash.
The fund is expected to be downloaded anytime soon to DSWD-6 to be immediately disbursed to affected residents of Caluya, said Judith Tanate-Barredo, chief of the DSWD-6 Disaster Response Management Division.
As of 2 p.m. yesterday, oil spill-affected families reached 7,198, or 25,733 individuals, from four areas in Caluya:
* Barangay Alegria – 900 families or 3,713 individuals
* Sitio Liwagao, Barangay Sibolo – 149 families or 628 individuals
* Sitio Sabang, Barangay Tinogboc – 967 families or 3,575 individuals
* Semirara island – 5,212 families or 17,817 individuals
Majority of those affected were families living near the shorelines and fisherfolks, Tanate-Barredo said.
“Most of these (affected) ara sa shorelines nga makahaklo sang fumes. This report came from Caluya LGU (local government unit),” she added.
A cash-for-work program will also be implemented for the affected residents; they will possibly be collecting the spilled oil.
However, Tanate-Barredo said they will wait first for the plan of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“We are still waiting sang program of work kay si DENR ang mapasa sang proposal sang amon cash-for-work,” she said.
The DSWD-6 already sent 2,700 family food packs to the Philippine Coast Guard – Western Visayas to be distributed to the affected families. Each food pack contains six kilos of rice, four cans of corned beef, two can of sardines, five pieces of energen cerial, and five pieces of coffee./PN
