EOC staff give out slippers to children in Barangay Lusaran. | Photo Courtesy of Councilor Joel Garganera
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has identified 12 mountain barangays in the city that may be viable for face-to-face classes.
The EOC has been visiting mountain barangays to assess the situations there in terms of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response especially since they are the least affected areas during the pandemic.
Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementer of the EOC, said in a phone conference that since the COVID-19 cases in the city have been dropping, the EOC has shifted to assessing the mountain barangays if certain restrictions can be lifted there.
Particularly, the EOC is checking which barangays will be the first to return to a face-to-face class set-up once the Department of Education (DepEd) gives the go-signal for such.
With this, the EOC has revealed that Barangays Lusaran and Tagbao are the most likely areas that will be recommended first for the face-to-face classes because their cases have been very minimal in the past year.
The other 10 barangays are yet to be revealed by the EOC.
They are also struggling with the current arrangement because these mountain barangays are far from connectivity and online classes are not an option.
“Lisod gyod ang connectivity dinha nga mga areas mao na mas maayo nalang siguro nga maka face-to-face classes sila. Socially distant naman pud sila daan even ang magsilingan,” said Garganera.
Garganera said that while no face-to-face classes have been allowed for now, the EOC plans to prepare these 12 barangays for the time when this will be allowed.
This includes assessing the schools for their face-to-face plan, mapping, and establishing policies to ensure the safety of the students.
While the EOC visits the mountain barangays weekly, they will also be educating the residents on how to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
On their April 25, 2021 visit, they bought slippers for the children of Sitio Mangabon, Barangay Lusaran as a form of giving back to the families there.
Garganera said that this is one of the effects of the reduced number of cases in the city as the EOC can finally focus on helping viable barangays to move on to a new normal after the pandemic.
The EOC will continue their assessment and coordination with the mountain barangays in the coming months. /rcg