DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is looking into the possibility of implementing a “relaxed version” of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the city should the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) not grant the local government approval to shift to a general community quarantine (GCQ).
Duterte-Carpio, in a radio interview via 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio Friday, May 1, said it is still uncertain whether the city would immediately shift to GCQ after May 15, following the IATF-EID order for the city’s ECQ extension after the body tagged the city as a “high risk” area due to the continuous increase of coronavirus (Covid-19)-positive patients.
The mayor said the city government would still have to formally submit a formal document for the IATF body to decide if Davao City can now be placed under GCQ.
“Ang pag-downgrade from ECQ to GCQ kinahanglan pa nato ipa-approve sa national government, IATF before ta mag move into GCQ. Maghatag ta og document didto request for them to assess us para mag GCQ ta (The downgrading of the city’s status from ECQ to GCQ would still have to undergo approval from the national government through the IATF. We would still have to submit a formal document to the body, requesting them to assess us if we are qualified for the GCQ implementation),” Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview.
But the mayor said, if the IATF would still not allow the city to shift to GCQ, the mayor will be pushing for a different version of an ECQ.
“Kung dili na ihatag na mag GCQ ta, what (I) plan to do is to move to the ECQ na mas relaxed version (If they will not allow going into GCQ, what I plan to do is to move to a relaxed version of the ECQ),” she said.
“Naa man guy IATF (version) na ECQ (nga) dili kaayo (in terms of) control measures is not pang-ECQ (IATF has a version of the ECQ that in terms of the control measures is not really similar to the current ECQ version implemented),” she added.
The mayor said she would still consider the current Covid-19 cases in their study.
Duterte-Carpio has refrained from discussing the provisions of the GCQ guidelines in the city to avoid causing confusion.
Although the mayor had already previously said that she already wanted the city to be placed under modified community quarantine (MCQ) so that some establishments and offices can operate to slowly put the city back into normalcy.
However, the IATF on April 24 recommended the city to extend ECQ.
Davao City along with Tagum City and the province of Davao de Oro are the only local government units in Davao Region currently under extended ECQ.
Tagum and Davao de Oro voluntarily extended the ECQ in their respective localities.