Metro Manila mayors recommend one-month GCQ, 10 pm curfew

August 31, 2020

Metro Manila mayors recommended to the Interagency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases continue the general community quarantine ( GCQ) for one month and ease curfew to allow the economy to gradually reopen.

''People are having a hard time but we have to reopen the economy slowly while maintaining health protocols,'' said Paranaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez, chairman of the Metro Manila Council, in an interview with dzBB Monday.

Part of these protocols include imposing lockdowns in areas where clusters of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases are found. Higher fines have been set if people do not wear face shields and face masks, added Olivarez.

The 17 mayors, in their Sunday Zoom meeting, which was attended by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and six Cabinet members led by Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano, also recommended to ease curfew from 8 pm to 10 pm until 5 pm.

Olivarez said the government will decide today whether to adopt their proposal. The government imposed GCQ in the National Capital Region along with  Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal province which ends on August 31.

Olivarez said the number of new cases in the National Capitol Region, where the bulk of the country's COVID-19 cases are located, have been decreasing.

''Two weeks ago, 60 percent of 6000 new cases were seen (in NCR). In the last three days, there were ( an average of) 4,200 cases. So there is a decrease of new cases but we will continue to strictly enforce health protocols,'' he said. DMS