DAVAO DEL NORTE, March 18 (PIA) – The Municipality of Kapalong’s COVID19 and Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) situations are currently doing well as of March 17, 2021.

This was revealed by Kapalong Mayor Maria Theresa Timbol during her guesting at Kapihan sa DavNor on March 17, 2021.

On the ELCAC situation, she revealed that the barangay in Kapalong that was most affected by insurgency, Barangay Gupitan, is now enjoying peace.

“Ang insurgency sa Kapalong, particulary sa barangay Gupitan, makaingon ko nga wala na gyud siya (The insurgency in Kapalong, particularly in Barangay Gupitan, I can say it is no longer present),” she said.

“Ang mga tao mismo ang ni reject na sa ilang presensya (The residents themselves are rejecting their [CPP-NPA-NDF] presence),” she added.

Timbol revealed that ever since the eradication of insurgency in the barangay, two national highways have opened: one going to Loreto of Agusan and the other is going to San Fernando of Bukidnon.

As well, farm-to-market roads have opened along with other concrete roads.

In terms of education, Timbol revealed that they were able to establish schools in the far-flung Sitios of the barangay-32 elementary schools in total, of which, 6 are integrated schools.

In terms of health, 6 health centers have been established which employed some Indigenous Peoples (IPs) as midwives.

For livelihood, Timbol said, “normal na kaayo, naka pananum na sila (Very normal, they are able to plat now).”

“Gone are the days nga naa sila sa communal. Sariling kita nila, padulong mismo sa ilang kaugalingong pamilya (Gone are the days when they were in communal. Their own income goes directly to their own families),” she described.

“In ana ang nahitabo sukad nahimong malinawon ang among IP barangay (That’s what happened ever since peace arrived at our IP barangay),” she said.

She also revealed that with the help of Congressman Pantaleon Alvarez thru his Sitio Electrification Program, the houses in the sitios of the barangay are each being worked on to gain access to electricity.

As for the COVID19 situation in Kapalong, there are only 4 active cases in the municipality as of March 17, 2021.

She found the LGU’s distribution of free two reusable masks to each household in the municipality as effective in preventing further spread of the virus. She said that it gave people no excuse in failing to wear a mask.

On the same day, the municipality of Kapalong rolled out its COVID19 vaccination-to finish on March 18, 2021 after having received vaccination doses good for 130 frontline health workers.

Having received no reports of “adverse reactions” following the immunizations conducted to the health workers, Timbol encouraged the people to get vaccinated.

“Ang atong problema is mutuo ta sa mga opinion nga gikan sa mga dili medical experts. Mao gyud na siya ang mali, tuohan nato ang mga medical experts. Dapat dili ta mag duha-duha nga magpa bakuna (Our problem is that we believe opinions not coming from the medical experts. That is what’s wrong. Let us believe the medical experts. Let’s not hesitate to be inoculated),” she advised. (Jan Vincent Leuterio/PIA-XI)