BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
“We won’t appeal,” Bacolod City Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said yesterday regarding the recommendation of the National Inter-Agency Task Force to place the City under the General Community Quarantine status from July 1 to 15.
Familiaran, head of the local IATF, said it was just a recommendation while the final decision as to the city’s quarantine status will be known today.
He said the City will follow whatever is the recommendation of the NIATF, but he said, “Even if we were under the more relaxed Modified GCQ, the restrictions being implemented in the City are those of GCQ.”
He cited the reduction to 30 percent of the capacity of establishments, like restaurants and others.
Earlier, the Philippine College of Physicians asked the NIATF to elevate the quarantine status of Bacolod and Negros Occidental due to the rising Covid cases.
But executive director Em Ang of the Emergency Operations Center said Bacolod’s average daily attacks and two-week growth rates do not qualify for an elevation of the quarantine status.
As of yesterday, Bacolod had 1,856 active cases, 10,729 recoveries, and 307 deaths.
President Rodrigo Duterte announced in a pre-recorded Talk to the People late Monday night the recommended community quarantine classifications for the month of July.
Duterte said stricter modified enhanced community quarantine will be imposed in Cagayan, Apayao, Bataan, Lucena City, Puerto Princesa, Nagay City, Iloilo City, Iloilo, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Cagayan de Oro City, the entire Davao region, Butuan City, Dinagat Islands, and Surigao del Sur until July 15.
LGUs UNDER GCQ
The GCQ “with some restrictions” will be implemented in Metro Manila, Rizal, and Bulacan, and GCQ “with heightened restrictions” in Laguna and Cavite until July 15.
To be placed under GCQ are Baguio City, Ifugao, City of Santiago, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Batangas, Quezon, Guimaras, Aklan, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Antique, Capiz, Zamboanga Sibugay, City of Zamboanga, Iligan City, General Santos City, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Cotabato, South Cotabato, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Norte, Agusan del Sur, and Cotabato City.
The rest of the country will remain under the least restrictive modified GCQ.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will meet today to discuss possible appeals from LGUs.
He said he might be the one to announce the final quarantine status.
“There will be no scheduled second Talk to the People during the week. Perhaps, I will be the one to announce the final quarantine classifications,” Roque said.*with report from PNA
