{"id":256062,"date":"2020-05-25T23:41:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T03:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=256062"},"modified":"2020-05-25T23:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T03:41:04","slug":"duterte-to-lgus-only-natl-govt-can-impose-travel-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/25\/duterte-to-lgus-only-natl-govt-can-impose-travel-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte to LGUs: Only nat\u2019l gov\u2019t can impose travel restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on May 25, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his call for local government units (LGUs) to accept overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) returning to their homes, saying that only the national government could impose travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ordering you to accept them, open the gates of your territories and allow the people — and allow the Filipino to travel wherever they want,\u201d Duterte said in a public address late Monday night.<\/p>\n

He warned local officials that they could face criminal charges for refusing to accept OFWs after their mandatory, facility-based 14-day mandatory quarantine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the constitutional right of people to go home — to travel and go home. Do not impede it. Do not obstruct the movement of people because you run the risk of getting sued criminally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte explained that the national government\u2019s power to restrict travel due to a national emergency cannot be shared with the local government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said nobody but nobody. And only the national government can impose restrictions on travels because it is the only agency who can declare that there is an emergency of national interest. The issue is national interest. And that power to — of declaration is not shared by anybody. It\u2019s the national government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While he acknowledged that local officials were only protecting their other constituents from possible infection, he said it was \u201ccruel\u201d to prevent them from returning home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, in the — not really confusion but in the — in their desire to protect their respective turf, territories.. and I can say that if that is the way they would handle it like a somebody who is really a chieftain of a city or province during a pandemic time, okay\u00a0\u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(that\u2019s okay).\u00a0Pero alam mo hindi naman lahat talaga nagkasakit<\/em>\u00a0(But you know, not everyone is infected) and it is very cruel actually to deny them to go home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said LGUs that want to impose new protocols should first ask permission from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want a measure to be implemented in your local government unit, ask permission from the Task Force because\u00a0alam mo<\/em>\u00a0it involves many issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte reiterated his order to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), and the Department of Health (DOH) to ensure that all 24,000 OFWs stuck in quarantine centers beyond the quarantine period are sent home within a week.<\/p>\n

He asked the agencies to utilize all government resources to ferry them to their respective provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am ordering the use of all government assets whether it\u2019s really the air or the sea or the transportation owned by government that should be utilized in accepting and probably delivering them to their — if possible, delivering them to their homes, to their families,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the same meeting, Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o told the President that all 24,000 OFWs in quarantine facilities tested negative for the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Under government guidelines, all returning OFWs are required to undergo facility-based quarantine and Covid-19 testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his call for local government units (LGUs) to accept overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) returning to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":256063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256064,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256062\/revisions\/256064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}