ILOILO City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog will personally lead the city's battle against dengue through a massive clean-up drive in the city's 180 barangays.
Memorandum Order 043-A issued by Mabilog on August 31, specifies September 1 and every Wednesday hereinafter as People Power Do-Day Kontra Dengue that mobilizes all barangay officials, students, barangay workers, City Hall employees and other volunteers to conduct a massive clean-up to flush out and destroy breeding places of dengue-carrying mosquitoes aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus.
All senior citizens in the barangays will also be mobilized as volunteers environment police to help in the clean-up campaign to rid of disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Mabilog said the drive will be simultaneous with that of Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor that also started in all municipalities in the province.
As of August 25, the city has 387 dengue cases and 14 deaths, while the province has 3,068 cases and 17 deaths, prompting the Provincial Board to declare the province of Iloilo under a state of calamity due to dengue.
Mabilog said at 8 a.m. Wednesday, a synchronized alarm of sirens, church bells and blowing of vehicle horns shall signal the start of the do-day clean-up. At noon, the same sirens and alarm bells will signal the end of the clean-up.
Clean-up activities include "kaya, kulob tampok;" opening up and exposing secluded and dark areas; shaking all curtains and drapes; draining and removing all stagnant waters; cleaning and replacing water in collecting containers, vases and others; cleaning all gutters and drainages of all clogged materials; trimming dense shrubs, bushes, grasses and other plants; observing proper waste disposal; and not burning collected wastes. (LCP)