A consensus will be reached by the Metro Manila mayors on unified curfew hours and other policies such as border control during their meeting later on Thursday, March 11, Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said.
“Mamayang five o'clock ang aming meeting ng ating Metro Manila Council at paguusapan po doon ito ngang spike ng ating COVID all over Metro Manila at kung ano po yung mga policies na gagawin. Na magkakaroon po ng consensus na isa lang ang policy within the National Capital Region (Later at 5 p.m. the MMC will convene and the spike of coronavirus disease cases all over Metro Manila will be discussed and what policies will be crafted to address this. We will come up with a consensus on a single policy to be followed in NCR),” Olivarez said during an interview with CNN.
The MMC chairman assured that the curfew hours will be the main agenda of the meeting to unify NCR’s 16 cities and lone municipality. Once the Metro Manila mayors have agreed, Olivarez said that the new curfew hours will be implemented two days from today (March 11).
“Kasi alam naman natin na interconnected ang ating city. Lumipat ka lang ng isang kalsada, ibang siyudad na. Lumipat ka ng isang purok, city na. So we will unify ang consensus po natin mamaya na maging isa lang po ang curfew sa Metro Manila (We all know that cities are interconnected. You cross one street it’s already a different city. You go from one area to another, it’s a different city so we will have to have a unified curfew in Metro Manila),” Olivarez said.
Olivarez said that upon consultation with Paranaque City’s economic team and the City Health Office, 10 p.m. -- 4 a.m. is the best curfew time.
“Bakit four o'clock, hindi five o'clock ng umaga? Para po yung ating mga nagtratabaho, yung atin pong call centers, yung mga BPO, para naman po pati transportation nila mas madali (Why 4 a.m. not 5 a.m.? So that those who work during those hours, the call centers, the BPO, will have no problem with their transportation),” he added.
On border control, Olivarez said the MMC will come up with a specific policy that will be followed by all cities.