Antique receives P17.8-M food aid for El Niño hit families

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA: The province of Antique has received 27,634 food packs worth over PHP17.8 million from the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Western Visayas (DSWD-6) for families affected by the El Niño phenomenon. They food packs were released to families in 11 municipalities, according to Erlyn Garcia, chief of the DSWD-6 Disaster Response Management Division. 'The first municipality delivered with family food packs was Sibalom being then the first to have declared a state of calamity on March 13,' she said in an interview Tuesday. Sibalom, which reported 11,943 families losing their crops and other sources of income due to drought, received 5,319 food packs worth PHP3.01 million. Also receiving assistance from the DSWD were Barbaza, 2,393 food packs; Tobias Fornier, 3,800; Bugasong, 1,000; Culasi, 5,450; San Remigio, 5,560; and Laua-an with 1,600. The rest were for Anini-y, Hamtic, Patnongon and Sebaste. The towns of Belison, Caluya, Libertad, Pandan, San Jose de Buenavista, Tib iao, and Valderrama have yet to request for food packs. Based on the DSWD-6 monitoring, Antique has a total of 74,065 families, equivalent to 269,085 persons, affected by the El Niño phenomenon. Source: Philippines News Agency