Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said Metro Manila mayors support President Duterte's decision to reject the proposed shift of the entire country into the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) in March.
Nine out of the 17 Metro Manila mayors who compose the Metro Manila Council (MMC) had earlier voted to recommend MGCQ for the National Capital Region (NCR). However, President Duterte made a decision to not place Metro Manila under the least restrictive quarantine status, citing the delay in the arrival of vaccines.
Olivarez, chairman of the MMC, said one of the reasons why nine metro mayors agreed to the shift to MGCQ is because of the national government's earlier pronouncement that vaccines will arrive in the country in February.
Olivarez said he supports the proposal of the National Economic and Development Authority to ease the quarantine status to help the country recover from huge economic losses.
He said Parañaque has already made a down payment of 20 percent for the purchase of 200,000 doses of AstraZeneca.