MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government will be distributing to some 200 stranded students from Baguio city and Benguet their financial assistance earmarked by the municipality to provide for their needs while awaiting the resumption of suspended classes due to the implementation of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong said that personnel from the municipal government will be distributing the financial assistance to the identified beneficiaries in Benguet as the same will be the first wave of assistance provided to the stranded students, especially that the enhanced community quarantine has been extended until the end of the month.
“We want to ease the burden of our stranded students that is why we decided to allocate available funds to grant them such assistance that will allow them to have the needed resources to cope with the difficult situation in their accommodating areas due to the extension of the enhanced community quarantine,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
The municipal mayor claimed the distribution of financial assistance to the stranded students will be done possibly on a door-to-door basis considering the limited number of students in the city as it is still best for them to remain in their boarding houses and await the delivery of their assistance by the assigned personnel of the municipal government.
Earlier, Mayor Ayong ordered some personnel of the municipal government to conduct an inventory on the number of stranded students from the municipality who still remain in their boarding houses in Baguio and La Trinidad so that the municipal government can allocate funds for them to stay in their boarding houses instead of risking their health in allowing them to go home to the municipality.
Ayong called on the stranded students to fully cooperate with the implementation of the strict policies of the enhanced community quarantine, particularly staying in their boarding houses when they have nothing to do outside and to observe social distancing, to prevent them from contracting the illness that might cause the same to spread in the community where they live.
He asserted the primary reason why the municipal government decided to let the stranded students remain in their areas for the meantime instead of ferrying them home to their barangays in the municipality is the possibility of the students being exposed to the virus while on their way that will result to them being carriers of the illness and spread the same in their homes thereby exacerbating the situation.
Ayong appealed to the students to use the provided financial assistance wisely and stretch its use until the next wave of assistance as the inter-agency task force on the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases decided to extend the quarantine up to the end of the month or until the COVID situation in the country stabilizes.
By Hent
