MANKAYAN, Benguet – Some three hundred residents from the town’s twelve barangays recently received from the Cordillera office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-CAR) their respective livelihood assistance to help in sustaining their desired economic activities after having been heavily impacted by the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis.
The livelihood assistance amounting to P15,000 each was distributed to the qualified beneficiaries by DSWD-CAR officials and the municipal officials led by Mayor Frenzel Ayong during a simple program held at the municipal plaza gymnasium complying with the implementation of the minimum public health standards under the modified general community quarantine.
The identified beneficiaries of the agency’s livelihood assistance were screened by the DSWD-CAR based on existing guidelines crafted for the said purpose.
Mayor Ayong urged the recipients of the said livelihood assistance to use this amount to improve or start up their economic activities to help their families.
He admitted that the impact of the ongoing pandemic to the economic activities and sources of livelihood of the people has been enormous and that something must be done to allow the affected residents to gradually and safely revive their activities for them to recover from the over one year of suffering from the effects of the pandemic.
The local chief executive claimed that the distribution of the livelihood assistance to the qualified beneficiaries is timely and will surely have a significant spur on the economic activities of the people in the different barangays to help them recover from the impact of the health crisis that had prevailed for over one and a half years.
For those who were not qualified as recipients of the said livelihood assistance, the mayor stipulated that the local government will continue to make the appropriate representations with the concerned government agencies for their possible inclusion in future livelihood assistance from concerned government agencies so that more people will benefit from the same.
Ayong expressed hope there will be similar livelihood assistance that will be distributed by concerned government agencies to the qualified beneficiaries in the municipality so that more residents will be able to benefit from such kind of program that will allow them to start recovering from the heavy impact inflicted by the ongoing pandemic to their economic activities and sources of livelihood.
Mankayan is a first-class municipality situated in northern Benguet with six of its upland barangays producing vegetables while the other six lower barangays host some large-scale and small-scale mining operations. It is also one of 3 first-class municipalities in the province that rely on mining as a source of bulk of its income which is being used to fund the delivery of basic services and the implementation of high impact development projects. By HENT
