BARANGAY officials may face suspension or reprimand if they fail to create and enforce a Barangay Mosquito-Borne Disease Task Force (BMDTF).
Councilor Arnolfo Cabling, city council committee chair on ethics and good governance, told TIMES that village officials, especially the barangay chairperson, are duty-bound to form the task force and curb, if not eliminate, dengue vectors in their community.
Cabling said any concerned citizen can file a complaint before the committee to report failure or neglect of any barangay official.
“They can submit a verified complaint notarized kay aksyonan nato tawagon ang atensyon sa barangay captain,” Cabling said. “They are just being negligent if they take it for granted. They don’t know their obligation under the law.”
“We will tell them. Otherwise, if they don’t act on your responsibilities, we will suspend or reprimand you,” the councilor added.
The office has yet to receive complaints, but he assured that the committee will act on any infraction or neglect by barangay officials.
Dengue cases recorded in the city dropped by 53% in 2025 compared to 2024, according to a report from the City Health Office (CHO) Tropical Disease Prevention and Control Unit on January 29.
CHO spokesperson Melodina Babante reported the cases in 2025 were 3,225, representing a 53.54% decrease from 7,175 cases in 2024.
But, Babante said that while the cases declined, every barangay is urged to create and enforce a BMDTF to strengthen monitoring on the ground.
Ordinance 0401-20 imposed penalties on residents found to have mosquito-breeding sites in their household. The IRR of the ordinance, approved in 2023, also advised barangay officials to establish BMDTF.
However, only 72 out of 182 barangays have an active task force, even with the requirement for the village officials to organize the BMDTF within 15 days.
For instance, Brgy Bucana 76-A was the top hotspot after registering the highest number of cases with 148 in 2025 and 336 in 2024, due to the absence of the BMDTF in the barangay.
She said the ordinance has a loophole, which doesn’t require the barangays to create their respective BMDTF at the risk of sanction.
The official said they will write to the Department of Interior and Local Government to issue a memorandum circular for the barangays to comply with the BMDTF.
Photo by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Unsplash
