As the stricter Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) enforcement in Metro Manila starts August 6, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año stressed Wednesday, August, 4 that only authorized persons outside residence (APOR) will be allowed cross border travels.
In an interview over ABS-CBN, Año said that at present checkpoints are already placed in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus borders leading to the adjacent provinces adding that “quarantine checkpoints’’ will be on hand at the start of the ECQ in Metro Manila.
He explained that quarantine passes will be activated by the barangays to ensure that only APORs buying and securing their essential needs are allowed to leave their residence.
“Yung mga tinatawag nating empleyado ng mga establishments na authorized under ECQ at isasama natin yung magpapabakuna, papayagan makalabas para makapunta sa mga vaccination sites (The people that we refer to as employees of establishments that are authorized under ECQ that includes those getting inoculated will be allowed to go to the vaccination sites),’’ Año said.
The DILG chief emphasized that those are the people who will be allowed outdoors citing that the objective of the ECQ is to restrict people movement to prevent the COVID-19 Delta variant in Metro Manila.
He reminded the APOR to bring identification cards (IDs) like the one issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and other regulatory agencies.
For the workers, Año said they should have with them valid IDs or documentations issued by the establishments allowed to operate under the ECQ and other “proof of evidence’’ that would make their travel legal.
“Yung mga papunta ng international airports, so nakaready yung kanilang ticket at sa mga magbabakuna naman yung kanilang appointment schedule o kaya yung vaccination card kung sila ay mag second dose or yung confirmation sa kanilang cell phone na yung araw na yun ng kanilang pagbabakuna (Those going to the international airports should have their tickets ready and those who are going to be inoculated should have their appointment schedule or vaccination card with them if they will be administered with the second dose or confirmation in their cell phones of their scheduled vaccination date),’’ he added.
Beginning August 6 quarantine control points at the borders of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces will be installed while curfew hours are set from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. in Metro Manila. (Chito A. Chavez)