Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez expressed his desire for a stronger relationship between his local government unit and the national, specifically with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in the Fellowship Night held recently at the Patio Victoria in Tacloban City.

The City Government was host of the Hawaiian – inspired party for participants of the semi-annual National Management Development Conference held January 10 to 12 at The Leyte Oriental Resort and Hotel at Baras in Palo, Leyte.

“We are behind you all the way,” he promised, in the presence of no less than DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman herself, Undersecretaries, 17 Regional Directors, National Program Managers, and other key officials at the Central Office level. He added that “we look forward to having more programs with you.”

The Mayor, however, mentioned that though “we have the same programs, we have different terrains, different cultures. For sure, our programs are tailored – fit for our respective regions,” he added.

The affair also saw the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the City Government of Tacloban and the DSWD Field Office Eight to formalize its partnership on the implementation of the Team Balikatan Rescue in Emergency (TEAMBRE).   The aforesaid project, developed by the Social Technology Bureau (STB) of the DSWD Central Office, is being piloted in Tacloban and Surigao, said Natalie Manuel of the STB.

Some 50 fishermen of Barangays 88, 89, and 90 of Tacloban City were selected from the database of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTSPR), and were carefully assessed from close to a thousand fishermen from the said coastal barangays.

The project represents a team of fisher folks organized and mobilized for a collaborated and joint undertakings in rescue and evacuation of affected families in coastal barangays and other disaster-prone areas. Its main objective is to develop a pool of volunteers among fisher folks to support community resiliency, and provide alternative source of livelihood during disaster months.