Bohol town fights COVID-19 with 

'simple' yet effective solutions

San Miguel town, protected by the sword and power of the archangel, may be a poor town, but that is not an excuse to just let its residents lie and wait to die as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) rampaged across the country.

Thanks to a strong leadership and a constituency that listened and learned, the town was able to implement simple "poor town" solutions to its major problems, shared San Miguel Mayor Virgilio Mendez, who is also a former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Commission on Audit director, a farmer for life and a son of Bohol.

Immediately after the Department of Health (DOH) implemented social distancing as a measure to stop the chain of infections caused by COVID-19, Mendez as chief executive knew it was interim upon him to do something.

Midway between Tagbilaran City and San Miguel town, a call from the mayor himself updated a group of journalists who were invited to cover the Women’s Month Culmination activities in San Miguel town, about 62 kilometers from Tagbilaran City into central Bohol, that the event has been cancelled. “We would rather want to be safe than sorry,” Mendez apologetically said over the phone as he called off the event.

Determined to see to the local situation, the print journalists continued on and arrived in the town just as the community stepped out from the church after the scheduled first mass on that day.

Mendez, a self-supporting student who made it through law school, had to crawl up the ranks from a farming family in Bayongan, San Miguel, to the city and then to Manila where opportunities are better for the honest and hardworking.

He sacrifices paid off when he became the NBI director before he retired to go back to serve his homeland. “Social distancing was a condition when schools would be closed, people would be told to stay at home, communities would have limited access to business establishments and governments would be out to bring services to communities," he said.

That time, nobody even gave a second thought about the policy. Most people thought it was naturally fancy for government to talk about social distancing, without discussing its implications. “We were supposed to have a cockfighting this afternoon,” the mayor added when the journalists arrived. “Of course, it would be the first recorded cockfighting where everyone would be required to wear face masks and we would be putting up alcohol disinfection at the gate,” he disclosed, as he sipped his morning coffee.

That was March 2020. A month and a half later, Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap would issue a series of executive orders mandating the closing of Bohol borders to air, sea and land travel, the imposition of face masks, curfew, and the community quarantine.

As the outbreak in Manila crawled across the country, San Miguel, under the leadership of a mayor who is no stranger to discipline as a mechanism for accomplishing tasks, took to a path they know would eventually come. “We were the first to put up a DOH accredited quarantine facility, considering that there would be local residents who would be coming home, especially with the closure of establishments,” Mendez said.

And while the beginning months of the community quarantine showed many local government units (LGUs) competing in the media limelight to beat each other in in relief assistance, San Miguel saw things differently. “We are a poor town and we know we could not sustain our help if we give beyond what we think is sustainable. We figured out this was to last longer than most people thought, so we gave according to what we can, a few kilos of rice, canned goods, noodles,” he shared in an interview.

True enough, the longer the quarantine stretched, the more the town was able to sustain its relief efforts. “We are poor, and all we can give is a poor man’s solution,” he said.

In May of that year, when the town was to celebrate its feast day, residents were asking the local government for help in solving the problem on their backyard hog industry. “The African Swine Fever had our people worried. Swine feeds dwindled as supplies were shut down causing prices to rise. With workers out of jobs, most lost buying power. What we did, we bought all those who were willing to sell, and we got 99 heads, with about 4,000 kilos of carcass which we gave out as part of the relief supply. We timed it with the fiesta, that families need not go out because they have at least a kilo of meat for every family to share. And they, too, earned from the sales,” the mayor said.

One of Bohol’s leading rice producers, San Miguel has vast rice fields irrigated by its own Bayongan Dam, which has kept the town’s rice supply stable. The community quarantines also helped. “We are proud to say that despite the community quarantines, our people did not go hungry. You know people here, we are used to eating vegetables which we grow and our dam worked the way it was designed so we had good harvest.”

Right when the community quarantine was raised all over Bohol, the people of San Miguel went back to their farms, helping in the town’s food production. The LGU also bought their produce to help feed those who are confined in the municipal quarantine facilities. Records also showed that San Miguel is Bohol’s last town to stop giving free food to their residents in quarantine. “We organized a group to cook for those in the facilities. We rolled the little money we had to make sure it sustains while we make sure those who work are also paid,” the mayor relayed.

And while several Bohol LGUs find it hard to impose discipline among its residents, San Miguel did start with the same problem. However, after a while, the way the town kept its people toeing the line was something many LGUs wanted to emulate.

“We strengthened the implementation of health protocols, we have been very serious in the implementation of wearing face masks and social distancing. We were the first to cancel all festivities when COVID scare came out. We stopped charter day, sabong fiesta. I think it paid off, the contact tracers have been very effective, especially when we hired contact tracers who are local residents. They knew fully well who to trace. That and our police force is very strict, very diligent but very reasonable in the enforcement of our policies. Ganun lang," he said.

In other towns when people in quarantine escape their confinement, the mayor said they provided them with their basic necessities, so there was no need for one to go out. “When we had lockdowns, the LGU San Miguel has been very supportive of the people involved in the lockdown. We provide them with the necessities that is why they do not really need to come out. Besides, they understood well why we have to be strict to do this, to provide security to their families," he shared.

The town also implemented strict 14 days of quarantine, collecting swab samples and testing to make sure that anyone who comes out of quarantine is clean. With this, San Miguel has also been among Bohol’s most successful in fighting COVID-19. “Before we issue the certificate of acceptance, our protocol officers talk to them seriously and ask them if they have health problems. We fully implemented the requirement and we do not allow entry unless they provide us with 72 hours negative PCR."

With this in place, the town mayor said "With God's blessing, we don’t have any positive cases here today. We implemented everything according to the book and we’re fortunate that out of the 45 positive cases, 44 have recovered and we only have one fatal incident," Mendez said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

HOLDING THE EPEE. San Miguel's success against COVI-19 has been credited to Mayor Virgilio Mendez, but the local chief executive said it was his people and their understanding of the situation that greatly helped local authoriies contain the pandemic. (PIA Bohol)

TEMPTING BUT THEY OPTED NOT TO. When other Bohol LGUs reacted to the relief assistance like it was a one-shot deal, San Miguel resisted the temptation and gave small amounts to sustain the little they have, knowing that the pandemic is going to last long. (PIA Bohol)

SELF SUFFICIENCY. With Bayongan Dam doing exactly as it was designed to do, as irrigation water was available during the community quarantine, the people of San Miguel took to their farms and helped produce the town's needs. (PIA Bohol)