Davao Occidental: The provincial government of Davao Occidental has started giving out food packs to residents and financial aid to frontliners since Sunday (April 5), while the province is under an Enhanced Community Quarantine amid the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) threat.
On the first round of the relief operations, the local government unit has initially distributed 15,817 food packs out of the 316,342 food packs targeted to be distributed to families in five municipalities in the province.
Executive Assistant to the Governor Marivic Hubac assured that there is steady food supply stocked at the provincial warehouse, and that the LGU has scheduled three rounds of distribution.
Hubac said that each of the COVID-19 frontliners in the province, including the 1,400 Barangay Health Workers (BHW) and 2,000 barangay tanods have been provided with an allowance of P1,000.
Financial assistance worth P10,000 was given out to each of the 105 barangay captains and P2,000 to each of the 945 barangay councilors, while each of the Liga ng Barangay Presidents of the five municipalities received P10,000.
The offices of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the province, and the municipal LGUs each got P500,000 as financial support.
The municipality of Malita, being the largest municipality, received a P1,000,000 allocation.
About 700 tricycle drivers, who are among the most economically affected by the impact of COVID-19 and the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine, are also part of the recipients of the P1,000 cash assistance.
Hubac said that the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) has not yet started in the province, as the LGU is still finalizing the list of recipients.
She added that as of this time, the province has not yet received any assistance from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Hubac disclosed that the ECQ which has been implemented since April 1, 2020, for the province to remain free from COVID-19, is generally accepted by the majority of local residents.
The curfew hours which is imposed 24 hours of the day, is also accepted without complaints by the general public, she said.
Aside from the curfew hours, the other strengthened guidelines of the ECQ under Executive Order No. 26, include the mandatory stay at home order, closure of business, suspension of all operations of land vehicles, strict monitoring of border controls and cleanliness, among others.
The LGU has also established its provincial, municipal and barangay patients under investigation quarantine facility (PUIQF) with more or less 600-bed capacity.
As of 8:00pm yesterday (April 5), Davao Occidental still has zero incident of COVID-19 positive in the whole region. (PIA-XI/Carina L. Cayon)