Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor, Jr. said the province welcomes the shift to modified general community quarantine (GCQ) starting May 16, based on the latest pronouncement of the national government.
The governor met with the Iloilo provincial board and the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP)-Iloilo chapter on Wednesday, May 13, to discuss the direction of the province once the enhanced community quarantine expires on May 15.
Defensor said the 43 local chief executives in the province backed the gradual transition of the province from ECQ to modified GCQ.
“Our mayors want a gradual transition from ECQ to GCQ,” he said.
As the epidemiology of Covid-19 is “not conclusive”, he said the province must need to be sure of its next steps.
“We worked hard for this. So we should not relax because we do not want to experience what happened to those countries, which relaxed their measures and experienced the second wave of the disease,” he said.
Western Visayas on Tuesday was classified by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases as a low-risk area for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
“Because we are at the low-risk… It means that we will just follow minimal health protocols like social distancing, wearing face mask, proper hand-washing, but all the rest of the activities will resume. It is very dangerous,” said San Enrique Mayor Rosario Mediatrix Fernandez, LMP-Iloilo president, in a separate interview.
Before the latest announcement of the national government, Fernandez said the LMP-Iloilo already agreed to pass a resolution to put the province under GCQ.
She said the mayors support the governor in protecting the gains of the province against Covid-19. “We want a gradual easing of restrictions, not sudden,” she said.
Fernandez also said the mayors agreed with the governor to still prevent inbound air and sea travel as it was observed that Covid-19 cases in the province were usually imported.
“In the past weeks or months, usually we were infected through inbound passengers from other provinces especially in high-risk areas. That (prevention of inbound sea and air travel) will be the last thing to be lifted,” she said.
Fernandez said the mayors will wait for the direction of the national government and the order of the governor to implement quarantine measures. Gail Momblan/PNA
