If you want symbolic references, just use them. Just because "use strict" prevents you from using them by accident doesn't mean it's bad to use them. Untested code:

our ($a, $b, $c) = (0, 0, 0);
foreach my $v (qw/a b c/) {
    func($v);
}
sub func {
    my $v = shift;
    print "v = $v\n";
    no strict 'refs';
    $$v *= 2;
}
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