Track: Case Studies

Abstract

Bulacan is one of the provinces in the Philippines with the highest number of confirmed CoVid-19 cases making its citizens the most vulnerable to the virus. This paper conducted a barangay-level vulnerability assessment with one of its municipalities, Bocaue, by adopting the three (3) dimensions of exposure, sensitivity, and resilience.  Twelve (12) indicators of vulnerability to CoVid-19 were identified through related literature and the vulnerability index of each barangay was computed using a scoring method.  Only one (1) barangay, Antipona, possessed high vulnerability (VICOV19 = 0.6250) while 84.21% or sixteen (16) barangays belonged to the low to moderate category (0.2500 ≤ VICOV19 ≤ 0.5417) and two (2) barangays fall under very low vulnerability (VICOV19 ≤ 0.2000).  The key indicators of a barangay's vulnerability to CoVid-19 include the number of detected cases (exposure), population density (sensitivity), residential type (resilience), and income (resilience).  The study also recommended mitigating strategies to minimize the vulnerability of the barangays which include the allocation of a higher budget for emergency use, strict implementation of CoVid-19 quarantine protocols, and local government's special attention and strict policy implementation on vulnerable places such as hospitals and workplaces.