The Iloilo City government on Saturday said it will appeal to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to place the city under general community quarantine (GCQ) by Monday, September 28.
In a statement, Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said he will send the letter request to IATF this weekend.
Iloilo City is currently under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), which is set to last until October 9.
Trenas said he already discussed the matter with IATF Chairperson Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Department of the Interior and Local Governments Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III.
The LGU also had a meeting with the City coronavirus disease (COVID-19) team and the business community, citing there were no more new cases in several barangays which were earlier placed under lockdown.
Twenty barangays in Iloilo City were recently placed under lockdown after more than 600 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in just one week.
"Compliance officers will be deployed to affected barangays. A Quick Response Team will be on lookout to trace, test, isolate and decontaminate areas with Covid-19 cases," Treñas said.
Meanwhile, the LGU said the city will continue to accept inbound passengers, provided they have a negative result from a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test within three days prior to arrival.
"We can accept flights of returning residents as long as their RT-PCR tests have been taken within 72 hours. Personnel will be assigned at the airport and seaport to check on their documents," Treñas said.
"We will then inform their barangays to monitor them. They can go home directly as no more quarantine in facility shall be required," he added.
The mayor also said government workers will have weekly random RT-PCR testing.
"We also suggest to do the same for fish port, and those with many employees such as BPOs, malls, supermarkets, banks, and all other businesses," he said.