THE three highly urbanized cities of Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue are set to help the victims of the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit northern Luzon on Wednesday morning, July 27, 2022.The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD 7) also said it could deploy relief items to Luzon if needed.Cebu City will send a team from the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRRMO) to check out the areas in the province of Abra hit by the earthquake.Mayor Michael Rama has directed CCDRRMO head Raquel Arce, operations head Harold Alcontin and Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CCDRRMC), to take charge of this.Rama said if the City Government has extra funds, it will send aid to those affected by the quake.Carillo told SunStar that the team Arce will send to examine the damage brought by the earthquake will submit its assessment to the Office of the Mayor, through the CCDRRMC, which will pass a resolution for the formal release of financial assistance to the local government units (LGUs) in need.Following the mayor’s approval, the CCDRRMC resolution would go to the City Council for the final resolution for the release of the City’s funds.The provision of financial aid to victims of calamities is not new for the Cebu City Government, which customarily releases millions of pesos to such victims in neighboring regions, to aid in their recovery.In Lapu-Lapu City, Mayor Junard Chan has ordered the preparation of the Collapsed Structure Search & Rescue Team under the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO).John Eddu Ibañez, chief of staff of Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, also told SunStar Cebu Wednesday that Cortes had ordered the deployment readiness of the Bantay-Mandaue-DRRMO if needed by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD).In his social media post on Wednesday afternoon, Chan said the City is closely coordinating with the OCD in Central Visayas on the earthquake response.“If there is already a signal from them, our team is ready to fly there to help them,” said Chan.The mayor said the incident reminded him of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu in 2013.As for financial assistance, Lapu-Lapu City public information officer Mark Bautista said the city government will assess its financial capacity considering that it is still recovering from the onslaught of Typhoon Odette (Rai).Standby foodAt the DSWD 7, Acting Director Shalaine Marie Lucero said it has standby food and non-food items at its regional warehouse if these are needed by those affected by the earthquake.In a statement Wednesday, Lucero said that while DSWD’s National Resource Operations Center, the department’s relief production hub in Pasay City, is currently supporting LGUs in Luzon that were affected by the quake, the region’s relief warehouses are ready to deploy additional food and non-food relief items if they are called for deployment.DSWD 7 has three warehouses, one each in Tagbilaran City in Bohol, Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental and Cebu City.According to DSWD 7’s Preparedness for Response Report issued on Tuesday, July 26, the region had 24,688 standby family food packs valued at over P14 million.As for non-food items, DSWD 7 had 2,385 hygiene kits, 2,906 family kits, 1,531 kitchen kits, 5,666 sleeping kits, 989 modular tents, 2,108 laminated sacks, 41 dignity kits, 20 mats and 15,062 malong (tube skirts or cloth wraps) for sleeping.The DSWD 7 also has P5 million worth of standby funds that can be used for any large-scale emergency. (PAC, MKG, JKV)