Benguet has extended suspension of classes in all levels in private and public schools until May 31 to slow down local transmission of the Covid-19.
Benguet Gov. Melchor Diclas, in an executive order, explained the order was based from the recommendations of the Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for Covid-19 during its April 20 meeting.
Diclas said the suspension is subject to guidelines and directives that may be released by the national government, Department of Health, or upon assessment of the provincial IATF Covid-19.
“Schools and other learning centers shall closely coordinate with the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education and Technical Skills Development Authority for further instruction and guidance,” the order reads.
Diclas said they have continuously given assistance to students who are stranded in La Trinidad, Benguet who could not go home to their respective towns.
Though, he said some of the students earlier went back to their homes with the assistance of their local government units that ferried them home. Those who were left were given food packs and cash assistance from the province and also their respective LGUs.
“We assisted all students in need not only our constituents but also students from outside the province like those from Pangasinan and Kalinga,” he said.
In Baguio, Mayor Benjamin Magalong signed on April 8 Executive Order 78-2020 extending suspension of classes in all levels until May 31.
EO 78 stated that “upon consultation with concerned government and private agencies, there is an agreement that to maintain the stringent measures to protect our city and our citizenry, the suspension of classes as stated in EO 65 (as amended) must be extended further.”
Meanwhile, Benguet State University President Feliciano Calora Jr., in university memorandum 13-2020, has called on its students “to follow the rules being imposed by their respective municipalities where they are a resident and by the provincial and national government.”
Calora said BSU is still performing its essential functions through a skeleton force. He assured that salaries, wages, and other benefits of university employees are being processed as soon as the requirements are complied.
Calora said all stranded students of its La Trinidad and Buguias campuses are given proper and sufficient assistance by the university through the benevolence of its employees, donors, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the LGU. – Ofelia C. Empian
