The Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Rex Gatchalian, visited Field Office 7 on March 8, 2024, for the first time since his appointment in early 2023 to continue his ‘listening tour” in all the field offices of the department across the country.

He conducts his listening visit to gain insights from the different field offices in the country to enhance the agency’s overall operations.

During his visit in Cebu, he toured around the field office and talked to the staff and members of the Regional Management Development Committee (RMDC) of DSWD 7.

The Secretary thanked the hardworking staff for their continuous and relentless support of the Department. “I will go home tonight very happy to see your field office. You care about everything, and you do everything with extra love and extra care,” he said.

In his message on social media, the Secretary said he continued his listening tour to take note of concerns and commend Angels in Red Vests in the region, the social workers, and the development workers for the hard work they put in day in, day out. He also commended the Regional Director for the excellent performance of the regional office in delivering the Department’s mandate through the implementation of programs and services while ensuring a clean and orderly physical office. “Field Office 7 is, if not the benchmark of what a regional operation should be,” the Secretary said.

Before he visited the regional office, he led the launch of the national kickoff ceremony for one of the Department’s innovations, the Tara Basa! Tutoring Program in partnership with the Cebu City Government.

The program is a reformatted educational assistance program of the Department that helps college students sustain their education by tutoring public school students in reading.

He also paid a courtesy visit to Cebu Governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia to discuss possible partnerships in extending assistance to the people of Cebu through various social protection programs and partnerships between local and national governments, especially social protection programs for persons with disabilities (PWDs).

For his last stop, Secretary Gatchalian visited the Visayas Disaster Response Center (VDRC) in Mandaue City to check on the operations of the repacking of family food packs that serves as the central disaster resource hub that feeds into the warehouses of Visayas and Mindanao field offices, as well as the prepositioning of relief goods in partner LGUs across its covered areas. ###

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