Agencies bolster BARMM fight vs. Covid-19

COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) strengthened its fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) by adding new members to its Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for Covid-19 on Wednesday.

The new BIATF members include the Police Regional Office – BARMM, the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) - Cotabato City, and Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) - BARMM.

With the expansion, four sub-groups were also formed - Task Group on Response Operations; Task Group on Resource Management and Logistics; Task Group on Strategic Communication; and Task Group on Food Security.

With the recent development on the classification of BARMM as a low-risk area, the BIATF said new guidelines would be released within the week under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) mode.

“The core team, which is composed of Ministry of Health (MOH), BARMM’s Office of the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG), and PRO-BARMM, will be in charge of crafting the new guidelines,” lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM’s interior minister and concurrent regional spokesperson, said.

To align the region’s guidelines, the BIATF would have to wait for the set of new instructions from the national IATF.

Sinarimbo reported that all task forces of 123 local government units (LGUs) in the BARMM have been “activated and responding to the needs of their respective constituents.”

“A total of 2,590 Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams are functional, and 90 quarantine facilities are also now available across the region,” he added.

Based on their monitoring, Sinarimbo said the LGUs complied with their respective tasks upon receiving the augmentation fund from the region’s Office of the Chief Minister amounting to PHP115-million.

He said the funds could be used only for purchasing medical supplies and equipment, relief goods, and assistance for front-liners and daily wage earners.

Meanwhile, Raissa Jajurie of the Ministry of Social Services and Development reported that more than half of the targeted 505,954 Social Amelioration Program (SAP) beneficiaries in the region have received their cash aid.

Jajurie said the distribution of the emergency cash subsidy under the SAP for the first tranche would continue. (PNA)

 

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