By Argyll Cyrus Geducos Malacañang said Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu can exercise all powers in order to curb the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Cebu City which passed the 4,000-mark this week. Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu joins the meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) presided by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang on June 22, 2020. (ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after the President ordered Cimatu to oversee the implementation of the measures against the COVID-19 pandemic and make recommendations on what should be done to contain the spread of the disease. In an interview with ANC's "Headstart," Roque said Cimatu was free to do everything he had to do but he just needed to notify the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. "The mandate, really, is to do everything that can be done to avoid a spike in cases in Cebu City and to manage the number of new cases being reported from the city," Roque said on Wednesday morning. "He will go there, he will find out what the situation on the ground is, he will make not just recommendations but will implement what he thinks should be done in a period of one week, and all he has to do is keep the IATF posted on the steps being taken," he added. According to Roque, Cimatu's designation was not against the Constitution because it is being backed by an executive order. "There's now a hierarchy of laws that we're following here. And, of course, the mandate of General Cimatu comes from the President himself backed up by an executive order," Roque said. "Although we have equality of power between equal branches of government, the President, because of procedural powers, is, in reality and in theory, the most powerful. So he (Cimatu) gets to exercise all the extraordinary powers of the Office of the President in dealing with the pandemic in Cebu City," he added. The Palace official also said that Cimatu's actions regarding the situation are tantamount to the acts of the President. "If need be, the President will issue executive orders to give legal validity to the actions being taken by General Cimatu," Roque said. He added that Cimatu's powers include calling on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to help implement the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Cebu City. "We've normally done this, resorted to asking the Armed Forces to perform civilian duties. So this is not martial law. This has been decided upon by the Supreme Court, and this is as far as enforcing the ECQ in Cebu is concerned," Roque said. "Normally, we have the police enforcing it. But if the police are not enough, then the Armed Forces can also enforce the lockdown," he added.