CLARK FREEPORT -- With the enhanced community quarantine all over Luzon island, the Clark Freeport has followed suit by implementing a lockdown.
The Clark Development Corporation (CDC) issued guidelines in limiting the people movement here as part of the measures in view of the threat of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) spread.
Effective on March 18, 2020, only employees in specific business enterprises will be allowed to enter and leave the Freeport.
CDC will only allow workers in the food sector (groceries, supermarkets, duty free shops, convenience stores), gasoline stations, clinics and hospitals, drug stores, banks, payment and remittance centers, waste management (garbage collection), utility companies (power, water, telcos), logistics, grounds maintenance (street sweeping, grass cutting), BPOs and manufacturing.
Pursuant to the Malacanang memorandum dated March 16, 2020 as issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary, the guidelines were presented to various locator groups in several meetings on March 17 facilitated by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and CDC.
Only workers in the business process outsourcing, and manufacturing, sectors will be allowed entry, with employers required to provide housing inside the Freeport.
Locators are advised to coordinate with CDC and arrange for entry and housing protocols. All other business enterprise not included in the allowed list are closed.
Hotels will be limited to serving current guests with no further bookings, except where locators allowed to operate would opt to utilize the hotels as temporary billeting for their employees.
Restaurants will be allowed to prepare food only for delivery.
The Clark guidelines reiterate the prohibitions in the Malacanang memo. These include mass gatherings, public utitlity jeepneys, all construction work, suspension of classes in schools.
Essential CDC offices to remain open. Public safety, engineering, and health services will continue to operate. Business processes like permit applications shall be made online or via the internet.
In a bid to discourage personal appearances for transactions and processing of documents in CDC offices, the state-owned firm is encouraging locators and stakeholders utilize the online services of CDC and other forms of communication such as telephones, email, and teleconferences.
CDC has closed the Clark Museum and 4D Theater, CDC Gym, tennis court and public parks operated and maintained by the state agency.
The same was also ordered for stand-alone gyms, sports, spa, massage and wellness centers and beauty parlors operated by private companies.
Only the Main, Mabalacat and Friendship Gates and the Clark North and Clark South entry and exit points will be open. The Sapangbato and Don Juico Gates will be closed.
At all entry points, thermal scanning will be conducted. Company IDs or supporting documents must be presented by employees of enterprises that are allowed to operate.
For delivery vans, drivers are encouraged to bring along alternates in the event that the primary driver registers fever.
While CDC issues its own guidelines for Clark, it advised the public to monitor additional public advisories posted by all other government agencies like Department of Health and Department of Transportation through social media and other platforms.