BAUKO, Mountain Province April 4 – Municipal officials and farmers from this upland municipality expressed their gratitude to local officials of different local governments outside the Cordillera for directly purchasing their vegetable produce and were subsequently given out relief assistance to the vulnerable and marginalized sectors in their areas of jurisdiction that contributed in stabilizing the prices of locally grown agricultural crops.
Mayor Abraham B. Akilit pointed out that most of the transactions between the farmers and the representatives of local governments that came to the municipality were mostly done in the checkpoint between Buguias, Benguet and Bauko, Mountain Province which was one of the adopted precautionary measures to prevent the eventual spread of the dreaded Corona virus disease (COVID) 219 in the municipality that could had come from outside.
Further, he pointed out that law enforcers manning the checkpoints made sure that there were no close contacts between the representatives of the procuring local government and the farmers to avoid possible transmission of the deadly virus that might derail the efforts of the municipal government in sustaining ta COVID-free status.
However, Akilit admitted that there were buyers who were able to enter he municipality and purchased the vegetable produce of farmers, especially at night, thus, he urged the law enforcers manning the checkpoint to adhere to the policy of not allowing people to enter the municipality, especially when they come from areas that have confirmed COVID cases.
The local chief executive also suggested to the inter-agency task force that instead of requiring motorists to fill up health declaration forms that could be dubious because of some dishonest people, people going in and out of the municipality and the province should secure a health certificate from their place of origin which will be shown to the law enforcers that will show that people wanting to enter the locality have a clean bill of health.
According to him, it could not be avoided that what have been stated in the health declaration forms that are being sked to be filled up in the checkpoints might not be true, thus, there should always be personnel of the health offices that will be assigned in checkpoints around the clock to ensure that people will be properly checked up before giving the go-signal to go in and ou of the municipality for whatever reasons.
He asserted that there is no unnecessary delay in the transport of agricultural crops from the farms to the markets but what is being emphasized is for people to be honest in filling up the health declaration forms and not to await for the regulations to be changed to much stricter ones where people will be required to fill up or secure medical certificates duly notarized from their places of origin before being allowed entry in the municipality.
By Hent