ENTERTAINMENT venues with live performances, recreational venues, amusement parks, casinos, and traditional cockfighting, among others, are not allowed to operate under the general community quarantine with heightened restrictions (GCQ-HR) in Bacolod City.
This, after the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) placed Bacolod City under GCQ-HR from July 16 to July 22.
In his Executive Order (EO) No. 39, placing the City of Bacolod under GCQ-HR from July 16 to July 22 dated July 15, Mayor Evelio Leonardia said under the GCQ-HR, businesses are not allowed to operate based on the Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines and the TV pronouncement of Secretary Harry Roque include entertainment venues with live performers such as karaoke bars, bars, clubs, concert halls, theaters and cinemas.
Recreational venues such as internet cafes, billiard halls, amusement arcades, bowling alleys, and similar venues are also not allowed to operate, as well as amusement parks or theme parks, fairs/peryas, kid amusement industries such as playgrounds, playroom, and kiddie rides.
It also included casinos, horse racing, lottery and betting shops, and other gaming establishments, except as may be authorized by the IATF or the Office of the President for the purpose of raising revenue for the government; traditional cockfighting and operation of cockpits; outdoor/indoor sports courts or venues for contact sports, scrimmages, games, or activities; Indoor tourist attractions; and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (Mice events).
Leonardia said church or religious gatherings for holy mass, prayers, worship services or similar activities will now be at a maximum of ten percent of the venue capacity.
He said under the GCQ-HR, gatherings outside of residences will be prohibited except for those essential for the provision of health services, government services, or humanitarian activities authorized by the appropriate government agency or instrumentality.
Gatherings at residences with any person outside of one’s immediate household shall likewise be prohibited.
Gatherings for necrological services, wakes, inurnment, and funerals of those who died of causes other than Covid-19 are allowed but will be reduced to ten percent of the venue capacity. Visits to memorial parks, cemeteries, and columbaria are allowed but are now reduced to not more than ten persons per group and not exceeding ten percent of the venue capacity.
The daily curfew hours will continue to be observed from 10 p.m to 4 a.m.
The rules and regulations in the selling of liquor, wine, beer or any alcoholic or intoxicating beverage in public places will also continue to be allowed only from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. However, the selling and/or consumption of such alcoholic beverages in authorized public places will be banned and prohibited in accordance with Executive Order No. 31, Series of 2021, dated June 6, 2021.
Leonardia said any person below 18 years old, those who are over 65 years of age, those with immunodeficiency, comorbidity, or other health risks, and pregnant women shall be required to remain in their residences at all times, except for obtaining essential goods and services or for work in industries and offices or such other activities permitted by the national and local governments.
“This new quarantine status, like in any previous manner of upgrading the status of community quarantine, is intended to slow down the rate of local transmissions and to serve as a fundamental reminder to our citizens that both the National and City Governments are always concerned about the health of the people with unquestioned determination to prevail in the battle against this Covid-19 pandemic," Leonardia said.
"At the same time, to demand from the same people their sincere cooperation and clear community awareness and understanding that the gains brought about by the previous health discipline and protocols shall not be wasted in order that our people and the local economy shall survive despite the Covid-19 health crisis,” he said.
He added the fight of Bacolod City against Covid-19, especially based on experiential facts and empirical data in its locality, is a call for self-reliance in its partnership with the National Government.