Senators on Tuesday said they are open to the proposal to put the Philippines under a less restrictive modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), but appealed to the government’s task force on COVID-19 to seek health experts’ opinion on the matter.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said he sees nothing wrong with the recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA), but the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) should give more weight to the opinions of health experts regarding the matter.

“More importantly, the IATF should properly plan and implement nationwide vaccination. That would surely enable the opening up of our economy with full confidence,” Recto said when sought to comment on the NEDA’s proposal.

Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara also said “yes” to the proposal: “Yes, we support that with the usual health protocols like wearing of masks and social distancing.”

“Malls and schools must be extra vigilant to avoid being super spreaders of the (COVID-19) virus,” Angara stressed.

Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III agreed to the proposition, pointing out that the Philippines is the only country observing the wearing of face mask and face shield on the account of claims this can reduce transmission of COVID-19 by more than 95 percent.

“Hence with mask and shield requirements we should feel confident about resuming our lives,” Pimentel said.

“However since COVID-19 is a ‘disease of crowds,’ all regulations must never encourage the gathering of crowds,” he pointed out.

Indoor settings, he said, can allow a 50 percent seating capacity but the IATF can consider being bolder and allow up to 75 percent in an outdoor setting “because there has not been a documented case of outdoor transmission.”

“But in all cases limit the person to person contact to no more than 45 minutes. And if a ‘non-essential’ activity tends to gather a crowd, then discourage that activity. IATF should try to achieve these in all their plans and regulations,” Pimentel stressed.