MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government and the municipal inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases allowed residents in the town’s twelve barangays to conduct their marketing activities daily as part of the efforts of the local government to help in the revival of the local economy.
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong reported that the situation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the municipality, especially in the Lepanto mine camp, has been placed under control since the later part of 2020 thus representatives from the various government agencies and offices of the municipal government supported the proposal to resume the daily marketing activities of the residents.
“We also want the local economy to regain its vibrance, especially that the COVID situation in the municipality is under control. The businesses in our municipality had suffered enormous losses over the past nine months since the implementation of the Luzonwide lockdown that is why we have to take the initiative of opening up the economic activities of the people,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
The upland barangays of the municipality are the town’s food basket, being the producer of a significant portion of the agricultural crops being traded at the various trading centers not only in the capital town of La Trinidad but also in other parts of the Ilocos and Cagayan Valley regions, while the lower barangays are mining communities.
Earlier, the municipal government and the inter-agency task force decided to regulate the marketing activities of the residents two months ago following the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Lepanto mine camp that caused the enforcement of a number of lockdowns in areas that recorded high cases.
According to him, the municipal government and the task force also crafted contingency measures in preparation for the possible entry into the municipality of the new strain of the deadly virus to ensure that the situation can still be controlled even with the projected surge of cases.
However, he claimed that appropriate timely advisories will be issued by the municipal government and it is important at this time for people to resume their economic activities for their sustenance.
Ayong asserted that the task force remains firm in the strict implementation of the prevailing basic health and safety protocols as part of the strategies to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the municipality while awaiting for the arrival of the vaccines that is hoped to contribute in helping bring back things to normalcy.
He expressed his gratitude to the residents for their continuous understanding and cooperation to the implementation of the prevailing community quarantine guidelines as these are still the best weapons that will help them get rid of the virus and keep themselves healthy. By HENT
