Apayao officials bring home stranded students due to EQC

BODY TEMPERATURE of Apayao students are taken for monitoring purposes before being allowed to board the Apayao provincial coaster  to bring  them  back to their respective hometowns after being stranded in their boarding houses in Luna town due to  enhanced community quarantine in Luzon. -- Apayao PLGU photo     

By Redjie Melvic M. Cawis

LUNA, Apayao -- The provincial government, in coordination with different municipalities, sent home 50 students and workers  were stranded in the town due to the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

On April 9, 26 students and five workers were able to go back to their families in the upper towns of Kabugao and Calanasan where they can spend the remaining days of the ECQ.

A trip from Luna to Calanasan town with at least 19 students was done on April 15 coordinated by Councilor Kyle Bulut.

Provincial Administrator Atty. Maria Theresa Ravelo said that the provincial government received requests from several students that they be allowed   to go back to their hometowns following the announcement of extension of the ECQ in Luzon. Most of the students are studying at the Apayao Sate College – Luna Campus and schools in nearby Cagayan towns who were stranded at their dormitories and boarding houses in Luna.

Ravelo said the PLGU and the municipal local government of Kabugao and Calanasan then coordinated to schedule trips that will bring back the stranded individuals to their respective homes.  

The LGUs have also provided relief goods to the stranded students to ensure that they have something to eat during the crisis situation.

Meanwhile, Calanasan Councilor Naville Taccalan said that the municipal government is supporting their students stranded in the different areas outside Apayao. They provided financial support amounting to P3,000.00 each to at least 70 students in Baguio City, Ilocos Norte and Cagayan province so that they have  something to use while in quarantine.

For Kabugao, the municipal government provided at least P2,500.00 each  to more than 80 students stranded in the different areas in Luzon. (JDP/RMC –PIA CAR)