MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government brought home 37 students from the town’s different barangays who were stranded in La Trinidad.
However, Mayor Frenzel Ayong said that before they were allowed to join their families, they were oriented with the prevailing health protocols in the presence of their parents and barangay officials for them on why they were not allowed to go home at the height of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
He added that of the 400 students who were stranded in Baguio and La Trinidad since the ECQ implementation, only 45 students responded to the call of the municipal government for the return trip back home.
Mayor Ayong claimed most of the stranded students opted to stay in their boarding houses because of the availability of internet that they could use to communicate with their fellow students and teachers to complete the requirements of their subjects they are enrolled in the different higher education institutions.
According to him, 13 students, especially from barangays Poblacion and Sapid, were brought to the town’s isolation facility to complete their 14-day quarantine because their residences are situated in bunkhouses within the town’s mining camp.
He revealed that the municipal government will be bringing home stranded students from the different barangays in batches to prevent the influx of individuals in the municipality that may cause the sudden surge in the number of persons suspected to have contracted Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019, especially that the said individuals come from areas with confirmed COVID cases and the fact that the municipality remains COVID-free to date.
Ayong asserted the municipal government is just implementing in the municipal and barangay levels the guidelines and health protocols governing the ECQ implementation from the national inter-agency task force on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in the municipality.
Aside from undergoing the required quarantine period, the returning students will be closely monitored by the members of the barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs) who recently underwent trainings on how to effectively and efficiently handle suspected COVID cases in their areas of jurisdiction to avoid panic from the residents.
Ayong stated stranded students have been provided with the appropriate assistance from the municipal government to help them cope with the prevailing situation and ensure they will have the sufficient subsistence that will allow them not to solely rely on their parents for support while staying in the city and the capital town.
Earlier, the municipal government, in coordination with the management of Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMC), Far Southeast Gold Resources, Inc. and Itogon-Suyoc Resources Inc., established the required quarantine facilities in strategic areas in the municipality that could accommodate a good number of individuals who will be required to go on the prescribed 14-day quarantine upon arrival in the municipality after coming from COVID affected areas.
By Hent
