CLEANUP DRIVE.Residents of Barangay Idio, Sebaste conduct their cleanup drive against dengue on May 21, 2022. Liga ng mga Barangay president Pamela Socorro Azucena, who is also the barangay captain of Idio, Sebaste, on Thursday (July 28, 2022) urged her fellow barangay captains to exert their political will to sustain the cleanup drive or the "four o'clock habit" to get rid of dengue.(Photo courtesy of Liga ng mga Barangay) SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique - The head of the Liga ng mga Barangay (LnB) in Antique has urged her peers to exert strong political will in carrying out the "four o'clock habit" to stop the threat of dengue. LnB president Pamela Socorro Azucena, in an interview Thursday, noted the need for her fellow barangay captains and other officials to lead in the daily implementation of the cleanup drive due to the increasing cases of mosquito-borne disease in the province. Antique has 590 barangays. The "four o'clock habit" is primarily focused on searching and destroying breeding places of mosquitoes daily. "I know that it is quite difficult to implement the 'four o'clock habit', especially since it rains also almost every afternoon. But then it would also be us that would suffer if dengue continues to rise," she said. Azucena added that the "four o'clock habit" was discussed during their LnB emergency meeting right after the state of calamity was approved by the Provincial Board on July 14. In Barangay Idio in Sebaste where Azucena is the punong barangay, she made sure the cleanup drive is observed every day. She also requested the Bureau of Fire Protection to flush canals with stagnant water that serve as mosquito breeding sites. "As of now, we have already zero dengue cases in our barangay," she said. Barangay Idio recorded nine cases in June. Data provided by the Integrated Provincial Health Office showed that as of July 23, Antique had 1,891 cases with eight deaths, which is 628 percent higher than last year's 261 cases with two deaths. In a separate interview, Glen Fernando, trade and industry development specialist of the provincial office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said they have yet to monitor any store that violated the Price Act since the province was placed under a state of calamity due to the dengue outbreak on July 14. The declaration resulted in the implementation of the Automatic Price Ceiling. DTI Negosyo Center business counselors in the 18 towns of the province will continue to monitor store compliance until the state of calamity is lifted. (PNA) }