The Regional Task Force (RTF) on COVID-19 in Central Luzon commended the City Government of San Fernando in its response to the pandemic through its policies and strategies.
This, after the group visited Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago and the members of CSFP Task Force for COVID-19 and Incident Management Team on September 16, 2020 at the Command and Control Center in San Isidro.
The visit was meant to assess the City’s response to the pandemic and to share the national and regional governments’ plans.
Maria Theresa Escolano, RTF-3 Chairperson and Regional Director of the Office of Civil Defense, commended the City, citing that even before the national government started implementing its strategies, San Fernando’s practices were already in place.
Escolano was pertaining to the practices presented by Dr. Renely Tungol, City Health Officer-in-Charge and Incident Commander, during the activity.
Tungol, in her presentation, underscored San Fernando’s COVID-19 practices in the medical aspect, including its core components—social, economic, and governance—which have been implemented since March.
“I am really impressed and I really commend the City of San Fernando. It has a lot of best practices even before the implementation of the National Action Plan and these are really worthy of emulation. I just hope that they’ll continue them. I only have praises for this city,” Escolano said.
Tungol’s presentation focused on the efforts of the city in expanded targeted testing, surveillance, isolation, and treatment, alongside other programs on minimum health standards, provision of food and non-food assistance, food security, peace and order, among others.
“Ang ating mga programa sa medikal na aspeto ay naka-ayon sa unang bahagi ng action plan ng national government. Para sa ikalawang bahagi naman, kasali na rito ang iba pang components na naka-ayon naman sa ating social, economic, and governance na ginagawa na natin simula pa noong Marso,” Tungol explained.
Tungol was referring to the “Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate (PDITR)” strategy of the Regional Task Force, which Escolano also presented during the forum.
The PDITR strategy aims to guide the local government units in crafting their own strategies for the second phase of their responses to the pandemic. Tungol said that this will enable the City to create more strategies.
“Ang RTF ay itinuturing nating partner in governance. Tayo po ay nagpapasalamat sa kanilang rekognisyon na mga ganito ngunit tayo ay buong-pusong bukas pa sa mga stratehiya at partnership na ibibigay nila sa atin,” Tungol added.
For his part, Santiago said that the City has always been managing priorities for effective responses.
“Ang batayan ngayon sa mga lokal na pamahalaan ay kung paano tayo nagbigay ng response. Sa Siyudad San Fernando po, makikita natin na epektibo ang mga programa natin dahil ito po ay bunga ng iba’t-ibang aspeto gaya ng leadership, pagpaplano, research, science, data, at study,” the city mayor said.