The discipline shown by Valenzuela City residents has helped the local government "focus" its efforts on medical intervention in handling the health crisis, Mayor Rex Gatchalian said Saturday.

Gatchalian said since the peace and order in his city is "laudable," they got more "painstaking time" to address the outbreak medically, particularly through testing and isolating suspected and confirmed virus carriers.

"I wouldn't say that we’re perfect. There are no perfect constituents and perfect cities. There are always law violators, but at least, the behavior of Valenzuelanos is very laudable—their discipline. Most of them obey the law, so we got to get more focused on intervention," he said in mixed English and Filipino in an interview over DZRH.

Gatchalian cited as example the initiative taken by residents of  two Disiplina Villages who implemented their own lockdown even before the pandemic was declared.

"Hindi na sila agad tumanggap ng mga bisita na galing sa labas. Kasi alam nila na maaring carrier yun, so sila na yun (Immediately, they no longer accepted visitors because they knew, these might be virus carriers. They did it on their own)," he said.

"Pangalawa, sila na rin yung kaagad naglagay ng mga thermal check sa mga pintuan nila.  Sila na rin naglagay ng disinfecting mechanism. Lahat ito, kusang loob ng Disiplina Village council (Secondly, they were also the first to place thermal check and disinfecting mechanism in the entrances of their homes. All these were their own initiative]," he added.

Aside from this, leaders of the villages were the ones directly distributing the relief packs to the residents to prevent building a crowd.

"Kung walang disiplina doon sa loob no, e di siguro kumalat doon ng napakabilis. Remember, tenement style ang kanilang mga tahanan, so dikit dikit sila. So napaka high risk ng lugar nila (If the residents did not have self-discipline, for sure the virus could have already spread in their community. They live in tenement-style houses so they live close to each other. The risk of transmission is high)," he added.

Gatchalian said the efforts of his residents to report violators have likewise allowed the city to monitor the implementation of measures against the spread of the virus.

Recently, a bus company was fined close to half a million pesos after social media users took photos of three of the company’s buses accepting passengers more than the required capacity limit.

"From there, we already saw the community activism in Valenzuela. The ones who took pictures are residents of Valenzuela... They didn't want the government not to know what was happening, that’s part of being disciplined," Gatchalian said.

Residents also follow the guidelines to turn themselves in for isolation in the city's quarantine facilities once they become infected. This prevented the further spread of infection among the family members.

As of August 6, Valenzuela has 2,541 confirmed cases with 1,316 recoveries and 70 deaths.