Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the national government should only follow one system for quarantine classification.
In an interview with CNN Philippines Thursday, Belmonte said that implementing a general community quarantine (GQC), with granular lockdowns and an alert level system is “contradictory.”
“The change of status to GCQ, in effect, already implies openness, liberalization. But then, they put in another component which is...alert levels, and they already said that NCR (National Capital Region) would be Alert Level 4 which automatically means that certain businesses...would be closed during Alert Level 4, which already contradicts that concept of GCQ,” Belmonte said.
“And then the third concept...of a granular lockdown. They said the reason why there would be granular lockdown is precisely so that quarantine levels could be liberalized or less restriction could be implemented in other parts of the metropolis where concentration of cases could not be found...that contradicts now the whole NCR being under Alert Level 4. What is the point now of having granular lockdown when the alert level is consistently the same all over the NCR,” she added.
The QC mayor said the government should just pick whether to implement the old system, which classifies quarantine status as modified, enhanced, general, etc. or move to the new system which is by alert levels.
“Wag dalawa kasi conflicting at yung taong bayan nalilito (Not two because it’s conflicting and the people are getting confused),” Belmonte said.
“Ang importante sa isang lider, dapat malinaw ang mensahe mo sa bayan (What’s important in a leader is for your message to be clear to the public),” the mayor added.
If the national government decides to use the alert level system, Belmonte said they should study what would be the basis for it.
She said the alert level system proposed by the national government only indicates the capacity of establishments.
In other countries, Belmonte said, the system has "something to with level of transmission.”