{"id":272277,"date":"2020-10-19T03:14:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T07:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=272277"},"modified":"2020-10-19T03:14:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T07:14:27","slug":"mayors-want-metro-manila-under-gcq-until-dec-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/19\/mayors-want-metro-manila-under-gcq-until-dec-31\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayors want Metro Manila under GCQ until Dec. 31"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
MONDAY COMMUTE. Passengers wait to board a bus at a pick-up point along Quirino Highway in Novaliches, Quezon City on Monday (Oct. 19, 2020). The Metro Manila Council has agreed to recommend adjusting the curfew hours in Metro Manila from 8 p.m. – 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. – 4 a.m., except in Navotas City, allowing persons 18 to 65 years old to go outside their residences, and increasing the capacity of churches to 30 percent. (PNA photo by Oliver Marquez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The mayors of the 17 cities and municipality in Metro Manila recommended staying with a general community quarantine (GCQ) status for the rest of the year, an official of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Monday.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser, MMDA General Manager Jose Arturo Garcia said the Metro Manila Council (MMC) — composed of Metro Manila mayors and national government officials — have agreed to a continued GCQ instead of recommending a downgrade to the less stringent modified community quarantine (MGCQ), in a meeting over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cMag<\/em>-stick\u00a0talaga tayo na hanggang<\/em>\u00a0Dec. 31, GCQ\u00a0ang buong<\/em>\u00a0National Capital Region (NCR) pa rin (We\u2019ll stick to a GCQ until Dec. 31 for the whole NCR),\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

He said the recommendation, still subject to the approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), was thought to be the better option as it would allow the gradual reopening of the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMahirap na i-<\/em>MGCQ\u00a0mo ng<\/em>\u00a0100 percent\u00a0saka mo babawasan. Magkakaroon ng<\/em>\u00a0resistance\u00a0‘yan at mahirap i-<\/em>control. Unlike\u00a0naka-<\/em>GCQ\u00a0tayo<\/em>\u00a0then gradually\u00a0tayo nagi-<\/em>increase\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0capacity (It\u2019s going to be hard to move to an MGCQ then we add some restrictions. There will be resistance and it will be hard to control. Unlike a GCQ where we can gradually relax restrictions),\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

For areas with a high number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, he said the local government units (LGU) will still have the authority to impose localized lockdowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cBinibigyan pa rin ng<\/em>\u00a0authority\u00a0ang ating mga<\/em>\u00a0mayors\u00a0na pag sa tingin nila medyo dumadami ang<\/em>\u00a0cases,\u00a0pwede nilang i<\/em>-lockdown.\u00a0Sinusuportahan ng<\/em>\u00a0IATF-EID\u00a0‘yan<\/em>\u00a0(Authority is still given to mayors — when they see that they have increasing cases of Covid-19, they can impose a localized lockdown. That\u2019s supported by the IATF-EID),\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

He said the number of active Covid-19 cases in the NCR has gone down, even though the national government has allowed the relaxation of several quarantine restrictions such as the reopening and expanded capacity of business establishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cNasa\u00a0<\/em>6,000\u00a0na lang po mahigit ang<\/em>\u00a0active cases.\u00a0Iyan po ay nagsimula ng<\/em>\u00a020,000. So, just imagine, more than 70 percent\u00a0na ang nabawas sa<\/em>\u00a0active cases (Around 6,000 is what we have now for Covid-19 active cases. That\u2019s from 20,000. Just imagine, it has gone down by more than 70 percent),\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

He noted the improvement came about as more people become more responsible, adhere to health protocols, and learn more about the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng nakikita namin dito kaya bumababa ang numero natin kahit paunti-unti ang pagbubukas ng ating ekonomiya ay dahil natututo na ang mga tao, nagiging responsable na ang ating mga kababayan sa<\/em>\u00a0health protocols (What we\u2019re seeing is the numbers are going down even as we slowly reopen the economy because people are learning, our fellow Filipinos are becoming more responsible with regards to health protocols),\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, he said the MMC has also agreed to recommend adjusting the curfew hours in Metro Manila from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. to 4 a.m., except in Navotas City, allowing persons 18 to 65 years old to go outside their residences, and increasing the capacity of churches to 30 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese three major recommendations are dependent on the approval of the IATF,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

He said the adjustment on the age allowed to go out of their residences in Metro Manila is aimed to help boost the economy as more businesses open.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The mayors of the 17 cities and municipality in Metro Manila recommended staying with a general community quarantine (GCQ) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":272278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-raymond-carl-dela-cruz","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272277","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272279,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272277\/revisions\/272279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}