THE local government of Baguio admitted to glitches in the distribution of food packs to the different barangays during the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The admission came in the heels of an uproar from residents from the different barangays in the city who stormed social media in protest to an alleged discrimination in the distribution of family food packs provided by the local government and other agencies of government.
Baguio City Vice Mayor Faustino Olowan said the LGU is ironing out the process so that everyone in city will be provided with the food packs.
“That is the same problem that we have also been receiving from our offices and we have invited last Monday our head of Office of the City Social Welfare and Development (OCSWD) Betty Fangasan and she has a good explanation, so probably this is a trial and error because admittedly we have some problems and we are perfecting the system,” Olowan said.
Despite the distribution glitches, Olowan assured supply of family food packs coming from the government and the private sector is intact and would soon be rolled out to the different barangays.
“There are those that have not been given but we have enough goods in the form of donations and those provided for by the government, from DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) from the City Government of Baguio, from the different businessmen so what is important is for all those need this, please go to the barangays and have your name listed because this is the basis for receipt of the goods,” the lawmaker stated.
The list provided by the different barangays in Baguio City will be forwarded to DSWD and OCSWD.
“We assure the public that as we go along, those who have not received said goods will soon receive it. We have to do this, we will be doing the first, second and third tranche until such time that all will be receiving,” the vice-mayor said.
Meanwhile, Olowan said he is not in favor of the extension of ECQ in the city, stating that with the extension, the city might have a hard time returning to a life of normalcy.
“We hope that all sectors will help us by providing inputs and information so that we would have the guidance but, on my part, personally I would not want to have an extension of the ECQ. The people are asking for a lifting of this already, the month long quarantine I think is enough and we should have learned from this process and we know that this is now a part of life, we have to start a new and if we give another month long extension of the ECQ, I would not know how we will address this program,” Olowan added.