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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Hontiveros to gov't: Heed LGUs' plea, simplify quarantine rules

Hontiveros to gov't: Heed LGUs' plea, simplify quarantine rules

Published Sep 10, 2021 12:17 pm

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Friday, Sept. 10, expressed her support for the call of local government officials for simpler quarantine classifications to avoid confusion in enforcement and among the public.

Members of the Philippine National Police man a checkpoint in a barangay in Sampaloc, Manila after it was placed under lockdown on March 17, 2021. (Ali Vicoy/MANILA BULLETIN)

"Why not simplify? To make it easier for people to understand ano 'yong inaasahan natin (what should we be expecting)," Hontiveros said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

This will also "make it easier for us to understand" the services and support to be delivered by the government during the imposition of different quarantine protocols, she added.

Metro Manila mayors have lamented the flip-flopping policies of the national government after its interagency task force (IATF) abruptly decided to defer the imposition of the less stringent relaxed general community quarantine (GCQ), but with a new system of alert levels, to allow various degrees granular lockdowns over the region.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said on Thursday that while local government units (LGUs) are ready to implement national government policies, the IATF has yet to come up with guidelines for enforcing the quarantine modification.

Belmonte also expressed her reservation on the new system, saying that imposing the GCQ while placing areas of the metro under a restrictive alert level would be contradicting. "Had it been implemented, there would really be a lot issues," the mayor said.

"After a year and a half of different quarantines, different Qs, nakakalito na rin (it's already confusing) also because minsan ang hirap pa sabihin, ano ba ang difference ng isang modified na quarantine at ibang klaseng quarantine (it's hard to differentiate what a modified quarantine is from the other classification of quarantine)," Hontiveros said.

"There's too much confusion already out here. Simplehan naman please ng gobyerno. At kasabay ng pagpapasimple ng pagpapaintindi sa atin anong klaseng alert level tayo ngayon, galingan din nila, damihan at galingan, 'yong health services at 'yong economic services under whatever number of alert level. (Can the government please simplify these? And while they are making it easier for us to understand the alert levels, can they also improve, augment and improve the health and economic services under whatever the number of alert level is)," she appealed.

Hontiveros reiterated that the government should ramp up its testing and contact-tracing efforts, as well as the vaccination of the population against the COVID-19.

Related Tags

quarantine protocols Risa Hontiveros Metro Manila covid-19 pandemic response GCQ
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