DAVAO CITY - The office of the First Congressional District Representative Paolo “Pulong” Duterte extended cash assistance and rice packs to the fire victims at F. Bustamante National High School in Bunawan District, this city.

Each beneficiary - composed of 149 house owners, 46 sharers, and 24 renters - received cash aid and 10 kilos sack of rice from Rep. Duterte's office. The distribution was held at the Bustamante school, where the victims are temporarily sheltered, on May 12, Wednesday.

The fire gutted down 146 houses and killed an 84-year-old woman after being trapped inside her house at Purok 13 in Barangay Tibungco in Bunawan on May 5 at around 11 p.m. The firefighters were able to control the fire at around 2 a.m.

In an initial report obtained from the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information (DROMIC), a total of 236 families or 1,180 individuals affected by the fire incident. There are 216 families taking temporary shelter in evacuation centers.

The DROMIC revealed that a total of ₱1,971,183 worth of assistance was already provided to the affected families, of which ₱1,499,183 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and ₱472,000 from their other private partners.

Barangay Tibungco chieftain Merjade Calvo expressed her appreciation to the First Congressional District Office, especially to the young congressman, and to other organizations for the help they had given to the affected families.

The district office has been giving food packs not only to its constituents, but also to other areas of Davao where people are in need of immediate assistance even amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.