DSWD: P875M QRF replenishment enough until December

The nearly one billion replenishment to augment the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Quick Response Fund (QRF) would be enough to cover the requirements for the agency’s response and relief efforts until early December.

At The Saturday News Forum, DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said that, with the QRF replenishment “we would be able to procure additional raw materials that would enable us to produce family food packs at a production capacity of more than 30,000 [daily] for both Luzon based hubs —ito yung nasa National Resource Operation Center at sa Central Luzon.”

“That is separate from the production ng VDRC [Visayas Disaster Resource Center) sa Cebu because we project 25,000 daily production output… so those two are 50,000 and we could go even higher than that,” she said.

Last Thursday, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released P875 million to replenish the DSWD’s QRF in accordance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive “to ensure we have standby funds to respond to disasters.” 

The released amount is chargeable against the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRM) Fund under the Fiscal Year 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Under the 2024 GAA, the NDRRM Fund may be used as an additional funding source for the QRF of implementing agencies concerned when its balance reaches 50%, subject to the approval of the DBM.

“We hope that wala masyadong disasters and emergencies in the month of December dahil ang mapo-produce natin ay pwede until the second week of December,” Dumalo said.

Nonetheless, the DSWD official said that the agency has close to a million family food packs already pre-positioned in strategic parts of our country.

“But we continue to produce and dispatch,” she said.

“Nakahanda po ang DSWD in terms of our resources,” she added.

Should the need for more funds arise due to unforeseen extreme weather conditions or calamities, Dumlao said that the DSWD is allowed "to request for another replenishment."

"Nakalagay sa mga umiiral na mga panuntunan na kapag nakapag-obligate na ang DSWD ng 50% or more than that ng ating QRF ay maari tayong mag request ng replenishment mula sa Department of Budget and Management,” explained Dumlao.

As of October 30, 2024, the DBM had said the DSWD's available QRF balance has reached below the 50% threshold at P557.77 million or 31.87% of its current appropriations.