DUMAGUETE CITY, Sept. 10 (PIA) -- Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo has claimed that the city is one of the places safe from the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the entire Philippines.
Speaking before local officials and media during the opening salvo in celebration of the 120th Philippine Civil Service Month this September, the mayor paid tribute to the members of the City Council, department heads and employees who toiled day and night to keep the city safe from COVID-19 and to make sure that basic social services are extended to the constituents despite the pandemic.
“This is because of the collective efforts of everybody. Everything was fluid na ga agad ta sa NIATF, but we innovated and there are even issuances in the national that were not applicable here but we just innovated it in order for it to be applicable here,” said Remollo.
“We have expected LSIs that have suspected COVID virus, we presume that they have COVID, thus we require them for swab test. It takes four days for the result to come from Cebu, so i-lockdown or quarantine nato sila for 14 days,” the mayor explained.
The city has been supporting the incoming locally stranded individuals (LSIs) with food and security services.
“We honor, we recognize today all civil servants who became frontliners from the start of ECQ up to today. The frontliners were dedicated as ordinary workers and the role of frobtliners from the Job Orders even the overtime project based, City Treasurer, DSWD, City Health Office, Nutrition Office, City Tourism, PIO, Fire Department, City Police and even the members of the City Council who formulated and legislated our ordinances and follow my executive orders as basis of the issuance of the quarantine passes,” Remollo said.
In recognition of their service, the City Government has approved P18.5-M as hazard pay for all regular, casual, job order, and project-based employees who served during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in April.
For more than two weeks now, Dumaguete City has not logged any positive case for COVID-19.
Remollo stressed the need to institute more stringent health protocols which require negative RT-PCR result for LSIs coming in the city to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
"I hope that other LGUs will follow suit because once the LSIs, APORs or OFWs na mag dala, palayo lang, ug COVID virus, it will be hard for us to do contact tracing and it will be very expensive for the city to contain them in a quarantine area," said Remollo.
Dumaguete City's status as COVID-free has been attributed to the policies adopted by the City’s Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the cooperation of public. (jct/PIA7 NegrosOriental)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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