DSWD takes over Oplan Hatid’s work Sunday
MANILA, Philippines—The Oplan Hatid will officially be turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development on Sunday, its organizers said.
In a Facebook post earlier this day, Junep Ocampo, one of Oplan Hatid’s organizers, said that at exactly 6 p.m. on Sunday, their operations will be continued by the DSWD, but will then be under the name “Hatid Kabayan.”
In the remaining days of Oplan Hatid, they will still have, but already, “limited” operations until Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Everyone may still volunteer through oplanhatid.teleserv.ph up to Sunday.
After December 1, interested volunteers may contact Hatid Kabayan through 0906-298-8532, 0998-982-1685, and 0998-982-1398 for more details.
“As a side note, also on December 1, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Oplan Hatid will have a thank you dinner at the Philippine Air Force museum. Everyone is invited. Please feel free to bring food, drinks and your stories to be shared,” Ocampo added.
Oplan Hatid are composed of roughly 500 volunteer drivers who give Yolanda victims arriving at Villamor Air Base from Tacloban City a free ride to their families residing in other parts of the country.
In an earlier interview on Inquirer Radio 990AM, the group announced that they will turnover their job to the government after announcements that Operation Salubong will be moved to Camp Aguinaldo from the Villamor Airbase.
As operations were brought back to Villamor, the group resumed its mission, until they made a new announcement about a turn over.
“But it doesn’t mean we’re stopping our assistance to the Yolanda survivors. Our core group is actually doing the ground work now for Oplan Trabaho, a one-day job fair for the Yolanda survivors who are now in Metro Manila,” Ocampo said.
He said the new project will likely be done in Araneta Coliseum where companies with job openings can come and hire survivors on the spot.
“We also would like to open the floor to donations in the form of office wear, shoes and bags . . . Maybe the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation, BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue] and SSS [Social Security System] can also come in to process NBI clearances, issue TIN [Tax Identification Number] and accept SSS membership applications,” Ocampo added.
Other details, he said, will be released on Sunday.
In a separate interview over Inquirer Radio Thursday, Colonel Miguel Ernesto Okol, Philippine Air Force spokesman, said that apart from Ocampo’s group, there are other groups, although smaller, that are conducting the same project.
Okol said about 200 more survivors just arrived, but noted that there has been a “significant decline” in the number of survivors arriving in Villamor from Tacloban City in Leyte and Guian in Eastern Samar.
When survivors arrive, those who would need medical attention would be guided by volunteer marshals to medical tents as others go straight to where they will be given relief packs.
They will then be escorted to the grandstand area for stress debriefing, and will subsequently be asked if they have relatives in Metro Manila or elsewhere the country.
Those who have a place to go will be brought there by volunteer drivers, and those who have nowhere to go are being taken to facilities identified by the DSWD such as at a school in Pasay City, Jose Fabella Hospital, Hospicio de San Jose, and two other facilities.
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