A GROUP of homegrown restaurants in Davao City is calling on fellow restaurants to strictly regulate themselves to lower the risks of Covid-19 infection and allow their businesses to continue to operate.
Restaurants are among the worst-hit businesses in the city since the lockdown in March 2020. Many restaurants not only have to deal with low traffic and low sales, but it also has to deal with increasing costs of raw materials.
As cases continue to increase in the city, there are fears that it could result in the city reverting to a stricter quarantine qualification. At present, the city is under a general community quarantine (GCQ) until March 31, 2020. The city used to be under a modified GCQ (MGCQ) around the middle of 2020 but reverted to GCQ in November due to a sudden increase in Covid-19 cases.
"The survival of our business depends on the quarantine classification," the Restaurant Owners Association of Davao City, Inc. (RestoDC) said in a statement.
The group said "the less stringent it is, the more people out on the streets and hopefully, in our establishments."
With the city continuing to experience a high level of infection, RestoDC said "there is an urgent need to contribute to the city's efforts of bringing the infections down."
"The compliant businesses cannot continue to suffer just because of habitual violators... Let us help by focusing on our sector, the Restaurant Sector. Let us self-regulate," RestoDC.
In January, RestoDC, in consultation with other restaurants in Davao City, has released a Covid-19 Code of Conduct to help the government in its fight against Covid-19 and lower the risk of transmission in their stores.
Through the Code of Conduct, the group aims to provide a set of standards that will govern the operations of the restaurant sector in the city as it operates amidst the Covid-19 pandemic; to disseminate and implement good practices anchored on the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Diseases Guidelines; to promote and advance the compassionate and responsible partnership as the framework for engaging fellow members, tourism stakeholders, and government officials.
"We, the owners, shall strictly abide by the IATF guidelines as defined by the City Government of Davao and other government agencies," the group said.
The group also they will commit to implement and comply with IATF guidelines "to serve as a model to our clients, suppliers, fellow restaurant owners, and the general public."
The local restaurants have also committed to fully cooperate with government agencies who will monitor the restaurants for compliance; employ measures from government agencies to remedy any and all violations found at their store; and accept whatever penalty is given to them if they are found to have violated the guidelines.
Several restaurants have voluntarily adopted the Covid-19 Code of Conduct.
"For monitoring, the sector shall coordinate closely with the city government of Davao through the Tourism Council of Davao. It shall participate in ensuring compliance by proactively engaging violators o the IATF Guidelines together with the monitoring teams. Consensus building shall be the hallmark of its engagement as it continues to craft strategies allowing this sector, as a whole, to achieve the set of objectives it has defined for itself," the group said.