THE City Government of Bacolod already released the food packs for the affected residents, especially drivers of public transportation, as the city has been placed under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Pacita Tero, head of the Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), said some of the food packs were already distributed on Thursday, September 10, 2020, to the numbered barangays in the city.

She said the barangay officials were tasked to distribute the food packs within their barangays.

"We prioritized the transport group because under the MECQ, public transportation was suspended and they are the most affected sector of our society. We will also give assistance to those who have low or no income constituents," she added.

Tero noted they already repacked the food packs to be distributed to 40,000 households in the 61 barangays.

Tero said barangay officials should have a strategy for the distribution of food packs since the city has been placed under MECQ and residents are restricted to go outside their homes.

"The barangays have their own lists of beneficiaries so they should have their strategy to avoid the crowd in their barangay hall," she said.

The DSSD will also hold another meeting with the city officials to discuss their next plan for the distribution of food assistance to the affected residents in the city.

Meanwhile, Tero said they will continue the distribution of the third batch of the second tranche of cash assistance under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) in the city next week.

"We will wait for the final instruction from the Central Office on when they can download the cash assistance and this will be distributed to more than 12,000 SAP recipients," she said.

She added that last week, they already finished the "digital payout" of the SAP grant for the "left-out" families in the city.