By AARON RECUENCO
Majority of Metro Manila mayors prefer to keep the general community quarantine (GCQ) status for the National Capital Region but the final say will come from President Duterte, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said on Friday.
Año said he will have a meeting with the Metro Manila mayors on Sunday when they are set to discuss whether or not the GCQ would be maintained or recommend the placing of Metro Manila under the more relaxed modified GCQ.
“A lot of the mayors in NCR still want the GCQ but it will still depend on the meeting on Sunday (September 27),” said Año who is also the vice chairman of the National Task Force on COVID-19.
During the meeting, the Metro Manila Council is expected to come up with the recommendation to the President through the NTF on COVID-19.
“Whatever the recommendation, we will compare it with data analytics. It is after the comparison that a final recommendation is expected to be submitted,” said Año.
In coming up with the recommendation, Año said that the main consideration that would weigh heavily is the safety of Metro Manila residents from the coronavirus infection.
Despite earlier statements that the Philippines has flattened the curve on COVID-19, the number of infected persons per day as released by the Department of Health is still high. Metro Manila is considered as the epicenter of the COVID-19 infection.
“It is really difficult to decide. We may implement the MGCQ but then the infection cases would go high,” said Año.
But he said the current infection situation leaves them with no choice but to implement either a stricter MGCQ or a relaxed GCQ.
“It would be better that Metro Manila is still under GCQ rather than declare a MGCQ but with a stricter quarantine protocol implementation. But this will be discussed on Sunday and we will immediately announce it,” said Año.
After any recommendation is made, the final decision is still dependon President Duterte. (Aaron Recuenco)
