The Department of Social Welfare and Development has recently approved P15,527,000 to fund the cash-for-work project for the families who have been affected by El Niño induced drought.

The approval was made by DSWD 9 Regional Director Atty. Araceli Solamillo after a series of assessment and validation conducted by the department.

The said amount will be used to implement cash-for-work and food-for-work program in Zamboanga City, Siayan and Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte and Diplahan, Zamboanga Sibugay in response to the request of LGUs to augment their resources in addressing food insecurity caused by the phenomenon.

Based on the project proposal submitted by their respective Local Government Units, Zamboanga City gets P6,300,000 to aid the 3,000 affected farmers, Siayan has a share of P7,096,000 for 4,000 families, Sindangan receives P1,175,700 for its 817 beneficiaries while Diplahan is allocated with P995,500 to pay their 455 identified farmers.

The cash-for-work program will be implemented for 10 days. Each beneficiary will be paid P210 daily, which is 75% of the prevailing regional wage in exchange for doing environment-friendly activities, which will help reduce or minimize the effects of natural disasters, such as drainage and river clean-up, garbage collection, among others.

Solamillo emphasized that the cash-for-work scheme aims at combining short-term lifesaving support through providing monetary assistance to respond to their urgent needs while strengthening long-term resilience by proactively addressing the causes of vulnerability.

“El Niño is having devastating consequences not just around the region, but across the country. We have to step up our efforts by not just providing food security, but more importantly educating and empowering the public, encouraging them to take appropriate actions to avoid worsening the situation whenever we are hit by natural disaster.” Solamillo said in a statement.

Currently, there are 8 municipalities in the region that are still requesting for fund augmentation. Some of them are still under assessment and validation and some have yet to submit pertinent documents, such as project proposal, master list and resolution of the declaration of state of calamity, to be submitted to the DSWD regional office for approval.

DSWD is continuously working with other government agencies, such as Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor and Employment, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources to avoid duplication of interventions.