DAY AND NIGHT DUTY. Returning residents queue up as they arrive at the North Cotabato Provincial Capitol receiving area after they were fetched by members of the province’s Task Force Sagip via the Davao City airport. A front-liner (inset) takes a nap while awaiting LSIs who arrived in Kidapawan City at 10 p.m. on Wednesday (July 29, 2020). (Photo courtesy of North Cotabato PIO)
COTABATO CITY – North Cotabato’s “Task Force (TF) Sagip” has accepted more than 13,000 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) and more are set to arrive in the province in the coming days.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the TF Sagip created by Governor Nancy Catamco to expedite the return home of LSIs from various parts of the country has so far served 13,034 returning North Cotabateños.
Catamco lauded the efforts of all members of TF Sagip for risking their lives while trying to help reunite LSIs and ROFs with their families in the province.
"I salute the sacrifices offered and rendered by our front-liners just to ensure you are safe and eventually be with your families,” she told the LSIs and ROFs as they prepare to return to their families after completing their required 14-day quarantine.
Despite concerns by some local officials, Catamco said her decision to receive and assist LSIs and ROFs would continue.
“I cannot see myself refusing the return of my ‘kababayans’ (province-mates) during this pandemic,” she said in a statement during the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19, where she urged other governors to do the same.
Catamco said she would like to see the LSIs and ROFs return to their families even if the provincial government spends much on the initiative.
“We asked them or their relatives here to vote for us and now we will not act when they needed our help?” she asked the other leaders in the region.
To date, the town of Midsayap has the highest LSIs and ROFs with 1,493; followed by Kidapawan City with 1,223.
The rest are the towns of Kabacan (1,144), Banisilan (949), Makilala (908), M’lang (882), Pigcawayan (676), Tulunan (651), Pikit (650), Carmen (648), Alamada (638), Pres. Roxas (578), Arakan (561), Libungan (496), Antipas (420), Magpet (420), Aleosan (350), and Matalam (347).
Catamco also lauded all the town mayors for immediately establishing their own isolation facilities to accommodate the returning residents. (PNA)
