This happened after Cebu City South District Rep. Eduardo R. Rama, in coordination with the Cebu City Government, sent a letter to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD 7) requesting it to conduct an assessment on the affected families.
DSWD’s Disaster Response Management Division said in a press release that 113 fire-affected families from the barangays of Mambaling, Sapangdaku and Guadalupe were ECT recipients.
The villages were placed under a state of calamity due to the degree and impact of the damage caused by fires in Guadalupe on March 7, which affected 10 families; Sapangdaku on March 14, 48 families; and Mambaling on April 19, 55 families.
DSWD 7 information officer Leah Quintana told SunStar Cebu on Wednesday, July 19, that the Cebu City Government provided the list of affected families.
The cash assistance distribution to fire victims was determined by two classifications: those with destroyed houses and those with damaged houses.
According to the DSWD 7, families whose houses were declared as destroyed received 75 percent of the regional wage rate (P326) for a total of 62 days, while those whose houses were declared as damaged will receive the same amount for 31 days only.
Of the ECT distributed, P1.9 million was given to the 95 families whose houses were declared as destroyed, while more than P181,000 was given to the 18 families whose houses were declared as damaged.
DSWD 7 had also extended a total of P2 million in cash assistance through the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation program and provided food, as well as non-food assistance worth P881,000.
The agency said ECT is an adaptive strategy for bridging the gap between immediate disaster relief, humanitarian response, and early recovery support in disasters and emergencies through cash assistance.
The cash assistance aims to augment the basic needs of the affected families, which include medicine, clothing, hospitalization, transportation, educational support and food.