Vice Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara stresses a point. Screengrab from CabTV.
CABANATUAN CITY — A ranking city official calledon residents of this most populated Nueva Ecija territory to extend full cooperation in any forthcoming government census to be able to draw plans, including in human settlement.
Sangguniang panlungsod presiding officer Vice Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara made the call as he acknowledged the hardship that most people are going through amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.
This, even as the city government led by Mayor Myca Elizabeth Vergara is currently distributing 10-kg bag of rice in its fifth round of food assistance to each of the126,000 families here.
The Vergara family, through the Kalinga sa Distrito Program of 3rd District Rep. Rosanna Vergara, had earlier made two waves of food assistance thatincluded 10-kg of rice each, on top of dressed chicken and squash.
Vergara noted that many sectors have been affected by the quarantine imposed as a measure to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
Even bank employees and workers in the private sector were affected by the no work, no pay scheme.
“Yung iba, hirap na hirap. Hirap na hirap talaga sila. Hindi birong hirap,” Vergara said.
Vergara, himself a former Mayor who provided shelter to several Badjao families, stressed the importance of government census in planning government programs.
“Sana dun sa census ay makikinig kayo kasi ho inaayos yan para pagdating ng araw yung mga susunod na magiging mayor, o magawa ni Myca, na makabili ng mga lupa na pwedeng lipatan niyo,” Vergara said in his television program Saturday.
That way, he said, people who have illegally put up structures on creeks or waterways can formally be resettled.
“Hindi squatter,” he said.
Meanwhile this city has logged zero active Covid-19 cases in the past couple of weeks as all the 20 confirmed cases of infection have fully recovered.
Of the 400 recorded suspect cases, however, 15 are under home quarantine, one is admitted and one was discharged. Of the said figure, 350 have finished home quarantine while 33 have died, according to the city information and tourism office.
