BACOLOD City – The city of Victorias in Negros Occidental became the 12th local government unit (LGU) in Western Visayas to attend the daily huddle of the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) for benchmarking.
Officials and personnel of Victorias City, led by City Administrator Dino Jose Maria Acuña and City Mayor’s Office chief of staff Danilo De Asis Jr., visited the EOC-TF at its command center at the Bacolod City Government Center on Oct. 22 to observe its daily huddle.
Acuña said he was “impressed” with how the EOC-TF manages relevant data that is later transformed into policies against the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019.
“We can see that it is effective. Everybody seems to really know what they are doing,” added Acuña.
He said that they will relay their observations to other local officials of Victorias.
“Victorias City is very excited about this. Hopefully, at the soonest possible time, we can start adopting the best practices of Bacolod,” Acuña said.
For the past two weeks, a total of 12 LGUs have visited the Bacolod EOC-TF and observed its operations. These LGUs include the Municipalities of Isabela, Murcia, Moises Padilla, La Castellana, Hinigaran, and Binalbagan; and the Cities of Bago, Himamaylan, and Silay – all in Negros Occidental – and the Provincial Health Offices of Aklan and Capiz.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia issued Executive Order (EO) No. 59 creating the Bacolod City EOC-TF to provide a body that will gather and harmonize data for better policy implementation against COVID-19. The issuance of the EO was in light of the sudden spike of cases in Bacolod last August.
Leonardia heads the EOC-TF under the supervision of IATF-Visayas chief implementer retired Major General Mel Feliciano, who was among the team deployed to manage the surge of COVID-19 cases in Cebu City earlier this year. (With a report from Bacolod City PIO/PN)
