LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – More than three thousand five hundred households in two mine camps recently received relief assistance through the mobile tulong program of Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap to allow them to cope with the implementation of the lockdown in their places following the surge in the number of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
Yap’s mobile tulong program was launched at the height of the enhanced community quarantine to ensure that appropriate government assistance and services will reach the grassroots level through the network of the lawmaker.
More than 2,459 households in Barangay Camp 3, Tuba and some 1,052 households in Barangay Virac, Itogon formally received the relief packs from the personnel and volunteers from the Benguet Congressional District Office and the United Benguet team that spearheaded the distribution of the assistance to the affected families.
Earlier, some areas in Barangay Camp 3 that plays host to the operation of the Philex Mining Corporation and some areas in Barangay Virac that hosts the Benguet Corporation (BC) were earlier locked down after the sudden spike in COVID cases that were traced from mine workers in the said mine camps.
The distribution of the relief packs to the identified recipients were done in close coordination with the barangay officials of the two barangays after the need for help to the heavily impacted residents was brought to the attention of Congressman Yap.
Further, Yap’s mobile tulong program will be scheduling a similar wave of distribution of relief assistance in Barangay Poblacion, Itogon which was also locked down because of the increase in COVID cases from the mine workers of the Itogon Suyoc Resources, Inc., a subsidiary of the Davao-based Apex Mining.
Congressman Yap was quick to positively act on the requests that was brought to his attention by concerned barangay officials on the need of the residents who were affected by the lockdown for relief assistance that will allow them to cope with the negative impact of the lockdown to their economic activities and sources of livelihood.
He said that similar waves of relief assistance will be distributed to similarly situated residents which is part of his efforts to extend whatever available assistance to those who are in need of help for them to cope with the effects of the prevailing health crisis triggered by the present pandemic.
The lawmaker claimed that he will do his best to immediately act on the requests for assistance from residents from the different parts of the province who had been impacted by the implementation of the lockdown in their places as one of the preventive measures to combat the spread of the deadly virus in their communities.
Congressman Yap stated that the mobile tulong program will continue to deliver whatever available services to the residents in the different barangays because it is part of his sworn duty to render genuine public service to the people of Benguet as he values the importance of having to survive the effects of the pandemic. By HENT