CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said that he plans to reorganize the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to not only focus on COVID-19 but also be an all-around response for all types of disease outbreaks.
Rama said in an interview with reporters that he will not be changing EOC as a whole but he will be revisiting its functions and organization.
“We will be revisiting EOC. The thrust in our human resource is for offices to be lean and mean,” said the mayor.
The EOC has been the primary office responding to the COVID-19 pandemic since its establishment in 2020.
Then Interagency Task Force (IATF) chief implementor for the Visayas, Retired General Melquiades Feliciano, appointed Councilor Joel Garganera as the deputy chief implementor of the EOC in Cebu City.
Rama said he still sees Garganera be part of the EOC, but he did not divulge his plans on who will lead the agency.
The mayor is also now confident that as the EOC is institutionalized, it will no longer serve only for COVID-19 response but for all kinds of necessary responses.
Furthermore, the city puts more emphasis on vaccination since vaccination rate has dropped with the city’s majority population already fully vaccinated.
As of July 7, 2022, there are only four fixed sites left at the Ayala Center Cebu, SM Seaside City Cebu, SM City Cebu, and Robinsons Galleria Cebu.
The city has also shifted its focus from COVID-19, which the city has a minimal number of cases, to dengue, which continues to record a high number of cases monthly.
“I am happy that our dengue cases ni-plateau na pero padayon lang gihapon ta sa atong Dengguera. We will not stop until the cases drop,” said the mayor.
/bmjo
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