CEBU CITY, Philippines — Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas urged the senior citizens in his city to stay at home and wait for the financial aid.
He said the financial aid will be delivered house to house from the barangays down to each sitios. Every senior citizen in Talisay City receives P4,000 yearly.
“I need your patience and understanding. It will take longer than expected, pero bahala na, basta safe mo, especially with our rising cases,” said Gullas.
The mayor said the house-to-house distribution may take time as there are a total of 22 barangays in the city and at least 20,000 senior citizens. Still, the city government says it is committed to bring aid to every house.
Staying at home for senior citizens during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is important because most COVID-19 deaths in Talisay City had comorbidities.
The six deaths recorded, all proving positive to the COVID-19, died of other illnesses and the Department of Health (DOH) cannot still yet identify if the coronavirus has played a significant part in their deaths.
With this, Gullas said the city cannot risk the senior citizens especially that four out of the six deaths were senior citizens.
“I will not stress this enough, please stay home especially with our rising cases and most especially if you have Comorbidities, pasabot high blood ka, diabetison ka, dialysis patients ka, you have cancer, naa kay TB etc.,” said Gullas. /bmjo