(19 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Manila, Philippines – 19 February 2025
1. Resident showing to community chief two dead mosquitos inside a cup and larvae inside plastic bucket
2. Barangay officials paying 64-year-old resident Miguel Labag for mosquito larvae
3. SOUNDBITE (Tagalog) Miguel Labag, resident
“I got nine pesos (US$ .15) for the 45 pieces of larva I caught. With this I can buy coffee, and this is a great help for me.”
4. Various of banner showing program (Tagalog) “Piso for mosquito!”
5. SOUNDBITE (Tagalog) Carlito Cernal, Captain, Barangay Addition Hills
“Our program “may piso para sa mosquito” but it’s not literal that for every one mosquito is one peso, the Barangay will lose money. At least five pieces of dead or alive larva we will exchange for one peso, five pieces.”
6. Dead mosquitos inside cup
7. Plastic container filled with water and mosquito larvae
8. SOUNDBITE (Tagalog) Carlito Cernal, Captain, Barangay Addition Hills
“When I found out that the cases (of Dengue) were high in my Barangay and we have 44 cases and already two deaths, which are students, there is alarm. And there was already an outbreak in Quezon City and here in Mandaluyong especially my Barangay which is the biggest and heavily populated, I found a way to make this new alternative that can add to the ongoing projects that the LGU (Local Government Unit) is doing.”
9. Barangay Addition Hills, Captain Carlito Cernal pouring water and larvae on strainer
10. Barangay helper counting larvae
11. Larvae inside bowl
12. Various of Cernal putting mosquito inside mosquito "death chamber" machine
13. Mosquito
STORYLINE:
A Philippine village in a densely populated capital region launched a battle against dengue Wednesday by offering a token bounty to residents for captured mosquitos – dead or alive.
The unusual strategy adopted by the Addition Hills village in Mandaluyong city in metropolitan Manila reflects growing concern after Quezon city in the bustling capital region declared a dengue outbreak over the weekend – with eight more areas reporting an upsurge in cases of the potentially deadly viral infection common in tropical Asia.
An urban village of more than 108-thousand residents in tightly packed neighborhoods and condominium towers, Addition Hills had done clean-ups, canal de-clogging and a hygiene campaign, but when dengue cases spiked to 42 this year and two young students died, that’s when village leader Carlito Cernal decided to intensify the battle.
“There was an alarm,” Cernal told The Associated Press.
“I found a way to make this new alternative that can add to the ongoing projects.”
Under the village’s “there’s peso in mosquito” campaign, a resident who would turn in five mosquitos or larvae, dead or alive, would be rewarded one Philippine peso (less than $1 cent) to encourage the community to help fight the threat.
Critics said the strategy may backfire with desperate people possibly opting to breed mosquitoes for the reward, but Cernal said the campaign aimed only to curb the uptick in cases and would be terminated once infections ease.
As soon as the rewards campaign began, about a dozen mosquito hunters started to trickle in.
Miguel Labag, a 64-year-old scavenger, handed 45 pieces of dark mosquito larvae wriggling in a jug half-filled with water and received nine pesos ($15 cents).
“This is a big help,” Labag told The AP, smiling. “I can buy coffee.”
Despite an increase in dengue infections, the Philippines has managed to maintain low mortality rates, he said.
AP Video by Joeal Calupitan
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