Mayor Jerry P. Treñas finds the decision of the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) placing Iloilo City under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until July 31 illogical.

A day after announcing that the city as well as Iloilo province will remain under modified ECQ, the NIATF reclassified their status to the most restrictive quarantine level.

Treñas said the reclassification was due to the detection of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in the province of Antique.

“I was told by Sec. Harry Roque earlier before he made the announcement that the reason we are on ECQ is because of the two persons detected with the Delta variant in Pandan, Antique last May,” the mayor shared.

“Diin da ang logic nga nakit-an nila, ato ya ang variant sa Antique, diri sila ya ma-ECQ,” Treñas said in a radio interview.

He noted that Pandan is six hours away from the city.

The mayor lamented that the city is always being blamed despite the city government’s efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus in the area.

Treñas said the number of new COVID-19 infections in the city this month is 20 percent lower compared to the total cases recorded last month.

As to city-based hospitals, majority or 60 of the patients admitted there are from other provinces in Western Visayas and only 40 percent are city residents.

Nevertheless, Treñas said the city will heed the NIATF’s decision.

The mayor is expected to issue on Saturday, July 17, an executive order (EO) providing guidelines for the implementation of ECQ in the city.

“Waay ta mahimo, atubangon ta nalang,” he Treñas.

Meanwhile, when asked if he felt that politics has something to do with the upgrade of the city’s quarantine status,Treñas said: “Waay ko kabalo.”

“Ang akon lang maintiendihan nga indi ko maintiendihan. I only understand that I cannot understand.”

The escalation of Iloilo’s status to ECQ was announced by Roque a few hours after a virtual meeting of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) with the region’s local chief executives and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing.

During the meeting, Treñas raised several concerns in an exasperated tone.

“You came up with your own recommendation. Where can you find that your own Regional IATF came up with the different recommendation? Tapos sabihin niyo one week? One week what? What will we do? In what way? How can we lower this hospital care utilization rate? It’s the DOH (Department of Health) that is supposed to do that,” said Treñas.

This was in response to Densing’s statement that ECQ will be enforced by the government in the province and city of Iloilo if COVID-19 cases in the areas will continue to increase after July 22.

BETTER VERSION OF ECQ

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. told the public not to panic amid the province’s return to ECQ.

The ECQ classification, according to the governor, is better 

“Don’t panic, don’t worry. Let us make the adjustment first. Then we will do what we have to do. Sa subong ginatan-aw ko ang bag-o nga ECQ daw indi man tama kalayo sa MECQ,” said Defensor citing the Omnibus Guidelines.

The governor is scheduled to meet with the mayors of the province’s 42 towns and one component on Saturday morning.IMT