BONTOC, Mountain Province – The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Mountain Province chapter passed a resolution requesting the national inter-agency task force for the management of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, through the regional inter-agency task force, for the reversion to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) status of all the 140 barangays and the 10 municipalities of the province.
In Resolution No. 2, series of 2020, the LMP stated that it is the sentiment of the members of the organization that it is more practical and viable, in fact, advisable that the entire 145 barangays comprising the 10 municipalities of the province revert or remain under the status of ECQ from May 1 up to May 15, 2020 where it is hoped that the neighboring localities had also indicated reduced instances of transmission of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) which might actually lead to relaxation of the quarantine measures in place with better assurance of the health and security of the province’s populace.
The LMP recognizes there is also a confusion during the transition from ECQ to general community quarantine (GCQ) because of the numerous guidelines and advisories from different offices and agencies which at times are superseded by new issuances only to be reverted and modified anew by newer issuances with regard to the implementation of the GCQ measures, unlike the ECQ measures which are already in place and to which general compliance had already been the new normal.
Earlier, the national inter-agency task force identified Mountain Province as one of the local governments qualified to be downgraded to GCQ status after it maintained its COVID-free status.
While the findings that all the 10 municipalities in the province had remained free of COVID up to date, the LMP stipulates that the same is a welcome vindication for the efforts of all concerned offices, agencies, personnel, volunteers, as well as the indispensable cooperation of the constituents of each and every barangay, where the threat of the disease eventually entering the province is still far from being treated as negligible, in fact, it remains an extremely high source of concern if the LMP is going to consider that all the neighboring localities bounding the province, except for Kalinga, have recorded cases of infections.
The LMP points out that the transmissibility of the deadly virus is extremely high in that it takes only a single positive carrier to infect a community en masse and under the said scenario, it is the collective sentiment of the members of the league that now is not the time to be complacent or to relax.
“One slip and the dominos will start to crumble, one after the other”, the LMP Mountain Province chapter resolution stressed.
The group asserted that the different municipalities are fully aware that at this moment, the said local governments are reportedly incapable of handling the crisis which can emerge once an individual tests positive for the highly contagious virus due to their limited resources, infrastructures, facilities, such as the unavoidable delays in the procurement of essential equipment, personal protective equipment (PPEs), medicines, and delays in the preparation of quarantine facilities and meager budgets.
The LMP underscores that clearly, the better option is to prevent the possible entry of the deadly virus, rather than deal with it when it has already occurred.
By HENT
