- City makes headway vs deadly mosquito-borne disease
DENGUE cases recorded in the city dropped by 53% in 2025 compared to 2024, the City Health Office (CHO) Tropical Disease Prevention and Control Unit said Thursday.
CHO spokesperson Melodina Babante reported the cases in 2025 were 3,225, representing a 53.54% decrease from 7,175 cases in 2024. The deaths recorded in 2025 were also down to 33 incidents against the 56 in 2024.
According to the dengue alert and epidemic thresholds, the number of cases remained below the alert level.
Babante said the reduction of the cases can be attributed to the creation and enforcement of the Barangay Mosquito-Borne Disease Task Force (BMDTF).
“The Barangay Mosquito-Borne Disease Task Force within the barangay is a big help since they can immediately take action on concerns about dengue problems,” Babante added.
Babante said this can be observed in the distribution of dengue cases in the 182 barangays. For instance, Bucana was the top hotspot after registering the highest number of cases due to the absence of the BMDTF in the barangay.
Meanwhile, Talomo placed second and Buhangin third. Interestingly, they have an existing BMDTF, but registered had a high number of transients.
The City Council passed Ordinance 0401-20 in 2020 to impose penalties on residents found to have mosquito-breeding sites in their household.
She attributed the reduction of the cases to the strict issuance of citation tickets to violators of the ordinance.
Section 14 of Ordinance No. 0401-20 mandates that violators will be fined P1,000 and a two-day community service for the first offense; a fine of P3,000 and a four-hour community service for the second offense; and a P5,000 fine and a four-hour community service for the third offense.
As a result, residents became attentive to their surroundings and complied with the notices issued to them.
However, she said the city could not afford to be complacent because of the reduced cases.
Since the approval of the IRR in 2023, only 72 out of 182 barangays have their own task force, even with the requirement for the village officials to organize the BMDTF within 15 days.
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 the Department of Interior and Local Government to issue a memorandum circular for the barangays to comply with the BMDTF.
“While we are awaiting the amendment of the ordinance, we request the DILG to create a memo to be sent to barangays to strictly implement the clean-up drive and adapt the search and destroy of breeding sites of mosquitoes,” she stressed.
