Baguio, Benguet, Cordillera officials plan for extended Luzon quarantine

BAGUIO CITY – With over ten days since the last confirmed case of COVID-19 infection in Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay) area, BLISTT mayors, frontline regional line agencies and National Economic Development Authority Cordillera  are planning measures if the Luzon-wide quarantine is extended by the national government on April 30.

               As of April 10, four out of the six provinces of the Cordillera remain Covid-19 free while Baguio City and BLISTT remained Covid-19 for 13 days until the latest case was confirmed on April 10.

Tuba is the “first line of defense” on two major gateways into the BLISTT.

Tuba officials said strict enforcement of checkpoint rules along its main highways is maintained.

A significant percentage of travelers to Baguio City and other parts of the Cordillera pass through Tuba via Marcos Highway and Kennon Road. 

As Regional Peace and Order Council chairman, Baguio Mayor Magalong committed closer coordination with the Benguet and Baguio police in providing adequate personnel in Tuba checkpoints.

Meanwhile, Mayor Armando Lauro of Tublay said his municipality will no longer allow the use of areas of Tublay as a staging area for chicken dung transport to farmers particularly in Benguet.

He said unhampered transportation of fertilizers posed health hazards to Tublay folks.

He added Tublay will closely monitor passage of trucks loaded with chicken dung.

Magalong said the Baguio General Hospital serves Regions I, II and the Cordillera, being the only sub-national accredited Covid-19 testing center north of Metro Manila. 

Cordillera Health director Amelita Pangilinan said BGH could already ramp up their testing, as needed, from 2,600 per day to 7,000 with the incoming kits from Manila.

Pangilinan also welcomed efforts of the Dept. Science and Technology Cordillera to use geospatial mapping to aid decision-making and monitoring of the enhanced community quarantine.

Cordillera DOST officials presented real-time Covid-19 surveillance and community-needs mapping system based on GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping.

The system will map out suspected, probable, and confirmed cases that will facilitate contact tracing.

It will also show the needs of a particular area in terms of relief and health services.

NEDA-Cordillera has also started collecting data and mapping health facilities, pharmacies and other allied medical services in BLISTT.

This could be used to ensure that people do not flock in one specific facility and that needs could be addressed more effectively. 

The UC-DOST GIS project would be used in integrating the contact tracing system currently being utilized by the City of Baguio.

Cordillera Agriculture director Cameron Odsey said Cordillera has more than an adequate supply of vegetables.

He said the DA Cordillera in coordinating with vegetable farmers and dealers for unhampered transportation of farm products. 

Cordillera farmers not only provide high-value crops to the region but also to the rest of Luzon.

The regional economic response task unit led by NEDA-Cordillera urged regional local government units to buy produce from local farmers as part of relief packs.

Trade and Industry regional director Myrna Pablo said as the price freeze is still in effect nationwide, local government units should convene their local price coordinating councils to monitor and set realistic prices for essential goods.  

Pablo added rolling stores have been set up in barangay clusters in Baguio City.

However, she acknowledged that inasmuch as grocery stores in the city are willing to cooperate, they could not sustain the supply as national manufacturers have cut down their production with the ECQ.

Interior and Local Government regional director Marlo Iringan the DILG and Dept. of Social Works and Development  have been receiving multiple calls from Cordillera citizens since the start of the ECQ mainly questions and complaints about checkpoints.

“Now, it’s mostly about relief and the social amelioration program,” he said.

Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said while social media has been a big help in disseminating necessary information, there was need to tap other media platforms, especially radio, to inform more citizens on the overall situation of the enhanced community quarantine in Benguet.

As the president of the Benguet Mayors’ League, Palangdan proposed a press conference that would detail plans and programs of the different municipalities of Benguet, the Benguet Provincial Government and City of Baguio, particularly on local implementation of price freezes and social amelioration.

NEDA Clordillera is working with the BLISTT mayors to prepare for economic rehabilitation.

Palangdan, who is also BLISTT governing council vice-chairman cited the establishment of PEZA eco-zones in the LISTT municipalities as a significant help to the area’s economy.

A few days before the national government instituted a Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, the BLISTT mayors signed a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority to pursue and establish economic zones in the LISTT municipalities.

PEZA, which operates an economic zone in Baguio City, remains an integral part of not only Baguio City’s economy but the entire economy of the Cordillera.

Palangdan sought the help of the regional NEDA and Environment offices to lift the permit restrictions at abandoned mines in Itogon and enable the local government to develop the unused lands above these mines to establish an eco-zone for Itogon.

As front-line agencies focus on responding to the immediate concerns related to the ECQ implementation, the Cordillera NEDA is preparing a region-wide recovery and rehabilitation plan.

NEDA-Cordillera as the vice chair for rehabilitation and recovery of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, has worked with various agencies to collect data for the formulation of a plan based on NEDA’s national recommendation for an “establishing a new normal” framework that is more prepared for and resilient to pandemics and other impending global concerns. -- NEDA-CAR