Crowd-drawing, tourism events banned in Bontoc

By Alpine L. Killa

BONTOC, Mountain Province – All crowd-drawing and tourism activities in this capital town are temporarily suspended. 

                This, after Dept. of Health through Secretary Francisco Duque III, confirmed local transmission of Covid -19 disease and President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 922, “Declaring a state of public health emergency throughout the Philippines” on March 9. 

In his March 9 executive order, Mayor Franklin Odsey said “crowd” shall constitute 100 individuals or more which shall include family reunions, festivals or fiestas and other merriments, school homecoming, athletic events, among others. 

It was stipulated in the ordinance that for humanitarian considerations, the conduct of weddings and wakes of dead relatives are exempted, provided that the wedding celebrants or the family of the deceased undertake precautionary measures to ensure that their visitors have not come from areas where confirmed Covid -19 cases exist or have been reported. 

                Also, tourism activities within the municipality are temporarily suspended.

Odsey directed all tourist guides or operators not to receive local or foreign guests for any purposes. 

“Tourists who are merely passing through the municipality shall be advised to proceed to their intended destination and not to linger within the municipality,” Odsey said in his executive order. 

The mayor said the temporary suspension of crowd-drawing and tourism activities in the municipality is a safety measure being undertaken by the Bontoc local government to prevent and or control the spread of the disease. 

                The Bontoc LGU has been conducting precautionary actions since the Covid-19 was reported in the Philippines.

In line with this, the Bontoc Municipal Health Office had been conducting information education and communication (IEC) campaigns on Covid -19 to schools and through radio guestings.

Also, the MHO and the Dept. of Health provincial office represented by Development Management Officer IV Clint Gil Ildefonso oriented barangay officials, barangay midwives and Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) on the Covid- 19 recently.