SAN JOSE, Antique – Stranded Antiqueños in evacuation centers in Pandan town have been provided with food and other essential needs by the Antique provincial government through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO).
Social worker at the PSWDO, Carla Butiong, said that 68 stranded Antiqueños at the Bawang Elementary School and the Sta. Cruz Elementary School were provided with rice, corned beef, sardines, towel, and laundry soap as they are no longer permitted to go home to their respective hometowns.
“They are Antiqueños who are either working in Boracay or other parts of Aklan. They were no longer permitted to go home because of the enhanced community quarantine,” Butiong said.
“Some of the (stranded) Antiqueños claimed that they did not know about the temporary closure while the others tried to beat the temporary closure,” she added.
The said Antiqueños were permitted to go out of Aklan but were stopped at the Antique border by the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for COVID-19 implementing the restriction.
To recall, Gov. Rhodora Cadiao issued Executive Order (EO) No. 36 on March 22, which placed this province under enhanced community quarantine and closed its borders until March 31.
The borders closed were in the towns of Hamtic and Anini-y in the southern part of the province (Antique-Iloilo) and the towns of Libertad and Pandan in the north (Antique-Iloilo)
Meanwhile, the PSWDO has coordinated with the respective municipalities of the stranded Antiqueños to provide food supplies to their constituents in the evacuation centers.
San Jose mayor Elmer Untaran urged the other local government units in this province to help those stranded there.
“It is better to let them stay at the evacuation centers in Pandan first until such time that the EO will be lifted. We are sure that they are in good physical condition,” Untaran said.(With a report from PNA/PN)
