Some 2,900 registered pedicab and tricycle drivers in Marawi City are set to receive 25 kilos of rice and P500 cash as assistance from the city government unit to ease the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis on poor residents.
Mayor Majul Gandamra said the city government gave priority to the drivers being the most affected sector during the pandemic, especially that the city has been placed on modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Oct. 1 to 31.
The Marawi City government started the distribution recently to the first batch, composed of 500 drivers, and will continue until all of the beneficiaries have been covered.
“The money for the rice assistance was taken from the 2020 annual budget of the city.”
Gandamra said the money for the rice assistance was taken from the 2020 annual budget of the city after the local government spent all the Bayanihan Fund from the national government.
“We properly manage our funds that is why we are prepared to give assistance to the needy.”
“We properly manage our funds that is why we are prepared to give assistance to the needy,” he said.
In April, Marawi City received P54 million from the national government as Bayanihan Grant for Cities and Municipalities (BGCM) that was used to purchase rice and other food items for poor residents.
During the MECQ, only a limited number of public utility vehicles is allowed to operate within the city proper, including the electronic tricycles (e-trikes) recently turned over to selected beneficiaries.
Throughout the duration of MECQ, Gandamra said curfew hours from 6 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. will be strictly implemented, the mayor said. No one is allowed to go out of their homes on Sundays, except for medical frontliners or for emergency reasons.
As of Oct. 5, Marawi City recorded 378 confirmed cases, 82 of which are active, with 278 recoveries and 18 fatalities. At least 342 of the total cases are classified as local transmissions.