Cash reward awaits Ilocos Norte villages

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ILOCOS NORTE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte, Philippines — The provincial government of Ilocos Norte has offered cash incentives to villages that can keep their coronavirus cases down.

In a press briefing on Monday, Gov. Matthew Marcos Manotoc said that under the “Barangay Incentivization Program Against COVID-19,” villages that could stem the spread of the virus among their residents between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15 would each receive from P15,000 to P120,000.

Only official data from the Department of Health (DOH) will be used to gauge the number of cases, Manotoc said.

The scheme, he said, is meant to recognize the important role of the officials and health workers in the barangays to effectively address the rising number of infections in the province.

Based on the Aug. 15 data of the DOH, Ilocos Norte is seen to have a high two-week average daily attack rate at 42.83 per 100,000 population, the highest among all the provinces in the country outside the National Capital Region.

In this capital city, residents were restricted from leaving their homes every Sunday since Aug. 8, as the local government imposed a “no movement” day to contain the virus spread.

Laoag City, which is under the strictest classification enhanced community quarantine, remains Ilocos Norte’s epicenter of COVID-19 cases as it accounted for 26 percent of the 4,261 active cases in the province as of Sunday.

—JOHN MICHAEL MUGAS