The Recovery Cluster of the Regional Task Force (RTF) VIII Against COVID-19 was officially organized in an online meeting conducted on 15 March 2021.

This was following the issuance of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Memorandum Circular No. 4, S. 2021 entitled “Reorganization of Regional/Local Task Force Against COVID-19.” The enhanced structure was introduced to be more responsive to the current needs and emerging realities in the regions.

Headed by NEDA VIII, the newly-organized cluster is charged with the formulation and implementation of action plans to facilitate the restarting of social and economic activities in the region, while preventing the spread of the virus.

The Cluster is divided into Task Groups which have general objectives geared towards social and economic recovery from the impacts of the pandemic. These task groups are on Economic Recovery, Social Recovery, Governance, Food Resiliency, and Transport Support and Local Travel.

Despite being just organized, cluster members immediately got to work assigning its task groups to prepare inputs to the Regional Action Plan.

The organizational meeting was attended by representatives from local government units (LGUs), regional line agencies (RLAs), and Regional Development Council (RDC) VIII – Private Sector Representatives (PSRs).

Article and Photos by:  Knulp Aseo and Jay-Ar Ragub