HOUSE Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez has asked President Rodrigo Duterte to extend a cash assistance of P6,000 for each family affected by the new quarantine status of the city.
On July 16, 2021, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases placed Cagayan de Oro City under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The city has been placed under the strictest community quarantine after the Department of Health (DOH) reported that there are five cases of Covid-19 Delta variant recorded in the area.
"It is very alarming that of the 11 local Delta variant cases in the Philippines, five are from CDO and one from Misamis Oriental," Rodriguez said in his letter addressed to the president dated July 16.
Rodriguez added that even if Republic Act 11469, or Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, mandated the provision of P6,000 to P8,000 per low income family for two months, Cagayan de Oro only received assistance for one month of P6,000 for each low income family because it was not declared under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) but only general community quarantine (GCQ).
"In the view of the same, may I request for cash assistance of P6,000 for each family in Cagayan de Oro since it is already under ECQ," he said.
Rodriguez said that with Cagayan de Oro now under ECQ, people are required to stay at home and will not be able to work. Thus, they will not have income to purchase food and other basic necessities for their families for the coming two weeks from July 16 to 31.
The house deputy speaker also asked Health chief Francisco Duque III, in a separate letter, to equip the healthcare system of Cagayan de Oro with medical experts on the Delta variant.
He added that this is to assist the city in implementing the proper steps to prevent the outbreak of the Delta variant.