Target: hospital worker
CEBU Governor Gwen Garcia has lately been training her guns on a Vicente Sotto hospital employee who allegedly "smuggled" two residents of his hometown in and out of Cebu City. The employee is exempt from the "stay-home" order and the border-crossing ban imposed under the province lockdown but his two companions are not. That incensed the governor.
How the "contraband" got through the police checkpoints shouldn't be difficult to trace. By the way, the "smuggling" was discovered by the folks in his hometown. The coronavirus emergency may have produced a crop of patriots or snitches, depending upon who rates them.
Getting through checkpoints
The sealing of borders -- some even within a barangay or imposed by a sitio -- has produced creative ideas, some outrageous, others plain funny.
One circulated publicly last April 25 on Facebook by one Elito Palanog Dulana, captioned "To avoid a checkpoint," shows a couple flying on brooms, safely above the reach of checkpoint guards.
Repealed by silence
The liquor ban in Cebu City was already imposed in Mayor Edgardo Labella's earlier Executive Order (EO) #53. It is ordered again in the mayor's EO #73, issued and effective Tuesday, April 28.
And the way it is phrased, it is as if the ban is imposed for the first time, thus: "A total liquor ban is hereby imposed within the City of Cebu upon the effectivity of this order. As such, it shall be prohibited for any person to drink in any public place of the City of Cebu during the entire period of the enhanced community quarantine."
That would be until May 15, unless the ECQ would be extended anew or the GCQ that's expected to follow would still carry the public-drinking ban.
The new EO prohibits only drinking. Unlike EO #53, which prohibits selling, furnishing, offering, buying, serving, or drinking alcoholic drinks in public places within the city during the quarantine period.
What the order does not include in the prohibition is deemed excluded and therefore allowed. The interpretation of City Hall -- and the city's liquor industry and its consumers -- is that they're now free to sell, buy, furnish, offer or serve liquor provided it is not consumed in a public place. Cebu City Administrator Floro Casas Jr. said what the EO doesn't expressly say: "Selling liquor to be consumed in the house is OK under the new EO"
Cebu still ECQ'd
The April 28 EO (#73) also extends the ECQ in Cebu City to May 15, to jibe with the president's order approving the April 24 recommendations of the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
The IATF recommendations included Cebu City and Cebu Province among the cities and provinces outside Luzon that would remain under ECQ until May 15. Tuesday's (April 28) reassessment by IATF takes out and converts to general community quarantine (GCQ) Davao Norte, Davao Oro, Capiz and Aklan but keeps under ECQ: Cebu City and Cebu Province.
Is Lapu-Lapu City part of Cebu?
Lapu-Lapu City is a first-class, highly urbanized city. While it is classified under Cebu Province by the Philippine Statistics Authority for census purposes, it is administratively independent of the Capitol.
Which raises the question: Is it part of Cebu Province for purposes of assessing whether it should remain under ECQ or shift to GCQ?
In the most recent past two announcements of IATF, it mentions only Cebu Province and Cebu City. They must assume that Lapu-Lapu City is part of the province.
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