Dry spell victims get DSWD food packs

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—After her family’s maturing cornfield wilted due to a prolonged dry spell in Misamis Oriental and other provinces in Mindanao, Lorena Navarro lost hope in recovering anything from their half-hectare property, more so in getting assistance from the government.

“We were supposed to harvest the corn and it would have earned us about P42,000. But nothing was left, so here we are, eating what is available for us,” Navarro, 50, a Higaonon living in Barangay Poblacion in Claveria town, said in the vernacular.

She and her husband, Roger, had to serve whatever edible food they could find so their four children could eat. For breakfast and lunch, the menu would be boiled cassava and banana, and for supper, only rice.

During school days, the children would leave the house with nothing more than their school needs, Navarro said.

To the “lumad” (indigenous) woman’s surprise, help from the government came in the form of food packs on March 3. Navarro was among hundreds who received the items from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in northern Mindanao.

At least 2,127 lumad have suffered from the effects of El Niño in Claveria alone, according to a report from the municipal government. The extreme weather phenomenon is characterized by global warming and rising sea levels due to uncontrolled carbon emissions from manmade activities that reduce Earth’s protective ozone layer.

Virginia Cardona, disaster management focal person of the DSWD regional office’s Crisis Intervention Unit, said at least P3 million had been earmarked for the food distribution.

Recently, department personnel gave away food packs to other communities, including at least 480 lumad living in the hinterland villages of San Fernando town in Bukidnon province.

They are scheduled to extend the food aid in the towns of Kitaotao, Impasug-ong, Lantapan, Cabanglasan, Quezon, Malitbog and Kadingilan, and the cities of Malaybalay and Valencia, all in Bukidnon.

Cardona said the agency was expecting more funds from the Department of Budget and Management to continue the food distribution scheme and other DSWD programs, such as cash for work and food for work. At present, it is using funds from the department’s regular program for disaster aid. Jigger Jerusalem, Inquirer Mindanao