THE City Government of Baguio has no plans of closing the night market at Harrison Road despite the Department of Health’s call for the public to refrain from frequenting crowded areas where a person may acquire the symptoms of flu or even the 2019 novel coronavirus.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong stressed that there is no need to close the operations of the night market.
“We don’t have any plans to close down the night market because if we do, then let’s close the operation of our public and super markets. One way or the other, we have to put in place a sense of normalcy. We cannot simply be hostage to this coronavirus threat. We are doing everything to make sure that the city is safe, we have been working with the Department of Health, we have put up a surveillance system and at the same time we created a task force, we created the barangay response teams, were implementing strategic control measures and mitigating measures, its business as usual,” Magalong said.
Magalong also called the public to report possible excess in the pricing of surgical masks in the city to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Mayor’s Office for them to be meted with the proper sanctions.
“The latest information that we gathered was that the N95 masks which costs around P85 have increased to P86 and then suddenly, went up to P130 while the surgical masks which was P50 for every box now costs around P100 plus and even at P200 so we have already alerted DTI but it is not so much here in our place as compared to that in Manila,” Magalong said.
The mayor said no decision has been made yet whether the grand street and float parade of the flower festival on February 29 and March 1 will be cancelled.
“There are still no plans as of the moment and we are closely in touch with the BFFFI (Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc.). We will be having a meeting this weekend or early next week because what we are looking at here is the lead time that should be given to the designers of the float as we should give them at least a three weeks and we will be discussing this extensively with BFFFI,” Magalong said.
On the alumni homecoming activities of the Philippine Military Academy or PMA, the board has decided to postpone the yearly activity of the academy.
“Yesterday I attended the board of the PMAAA on their invitation together with Vice Admiral Allan Cusi and we were able to convey to them our views and thoughts regarding the corona virus threat in Baguio City and at the same time, our view on the homecoming which would bring in thousands of visitors specially graduates and their relatives of PMA and they manifested their full support to the city and PMA and after a very intense discussion, they decided to postpone our homecoming but it does not preclude other classes to come over and enjoy and have a reunion in the city,” Magalong added.
Attendees of this year’s PMA alumni homecoming have given their support to the measure.