MANILA, Philippines — Just stay at home.
This was the message as President Duterte yesterday expanded the community quarantine in Metro Manila to include the entire Luzon.
Appealing for understanding, the President announced at Malacañang last night the “enhanced quarantine,” which includes the suspension of work in many sectors as well as all mass transportation until April 14.
The pronouncement expanded the Metro Manila “community quarantine,” which restricted non-essential land, domestic air, and domestic sea travel to and from the nation’s capital region.
Exempted from the work stoppage are all businesses, services and activities related to the production or provision of food, medicine and health, banking and finance, public utilities and mass media.
All cargo movement would be allowed “unhampered.”
The main island of Luzon is home to more than half of the country’s 107 million
population.
The expanded community quarantine was announced two days after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country breached 100. The disease, declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, has infected 140 persons and has claimed the lives of 12 others in the Philippines.
A memorandum issued by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea over the weekend identified two types of community quarantines, namely general community quarantine and enhanced community quarantine.
Under general community quarantine, the movement of people shall be limited to accessing basic necessities and uniformed personnel and quarantine officers are deployed at border points.
Measures are more stringent under an enhanced community quarantine, which involves strict home quarantine for all households; regulation of the provision of food and essential health services; and the heightened presence of uniformed personnel to enforce quarantine procedures.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the Luzon community quarantine takes effect immediately.
“It means that all persons will be subjected to strict home quarantine, no movement and no transportation except for frontline health workers, authorized government officials, medical or humanitarian reasons as well as transport of basic services and necessities,” Panelo told ABS-CBN News Channel. “It means we will have to stay at home. Work will be suspended.”
Panelo said government offices would be manned by skeleton staff or a minimum number of workers needed to maintain operations. He said local government units (LGUs) would deliver food and other essential needs to their constituents.
“Provision for food and essential services shall be regulated. The respective LGUs will have to create a system where food and essential needs will be delivered to the homes of the communities,” the Palace spokesman said.
“In other words, we will not allow a rush to getting food and supplies because there will be sufficient food and supply,” he added.
The measures, if implemented fully, would be among the strictest in place in Asia, as the country grapples to contain an outbreak that has seen confirmed cases rise to 140 – from only three cases 10 days ago – with 12 deaths.
“We are the soldiers but we are also the enemy,” Panelo said in another interview. “We are enemies with ourselves. We are the carriers of the virus.”
The government had also suspended classes from March 9 to April 14 and had banned mass gatherings to prevent the spread of the disease.
Single facility
Panelo also said the Duterte administration is planning to set up a single facility for infected individuals.
“We are recommending that there should be only one place where we can put all those confirmed cases. It should be the same for people being monitored so we can isolate them and give them enough attention,” Panelo said at a press briefing yesterday.
“Our problem is, the way things are developing, we might run out of hospitals that will treat them and not only that, we are exposing our health workers to the same infection. If we limit them to certain areas, we can control (the spread)... If we run out of health workers, we would have a problem,” he added.
Panelo did not say where the government intends to place the COVID-19 patients and those being investigated for the disease.
Malacañang also assured the public that the country has enough medical supplies for health workers handling the patients.
Panelo said 20,000 testing kits are coming in to enhance the reporting of confirmed cases. A private pharmaceutical firm has also offered its factory as a venue for the production of medical gear, he added.
He said the Asian Development Bank is also providing the Philippines a $3-million grant to combat COVID-19.
“Secretary of Labor (Silvestre) Bello (III) is also prepared to help those who are under a ‘no work, no pay’ scheme. If they are affected, he is ready to give them financial assistance. We also have food and social services,” he said.
Panelo gave contradictory statements on the extent to which work and travel would be suspended and whether supermarkets would be closed.
Panelo said banks would be closed, while cash machines would remain available. However, asked about the presidential spokesman’s remarks on closing banks, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said in a text message to Reuters that there “was no truth to the rumor” banks would be shut.
At a briefing, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the department is now expediting the facilitation of green lanes or food lanes in 65 entry and exit points around Metro Manila.
“We are coordinating with all accredited truckers, logistics and refrigerated van operators for the faster passage of agricultural goods. We will guarantee that quarantine measures will still be observed while ensuring that we have enough supply of commodities that are arriving from other regions,” Dar said.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) also issued guidelines for limiting the operations of malls to tenants offering essential services, and ordering temporary closure of other business establishments such as bars, theater halls and casinos in the duration of the quarantine.
“With the declaration of general community quarantine, mall operations shall be limited to establishments offering basic necessities such as groceries and supermarkets, banks, pharmacies, health clinics, bookstores, hardware stores, food stalls (takeout or delivery only),” the DTI said in Memorandum Circular 20-04 dated March 15, but released yesterday.
DTI said business process outsourcing offices inside malls would be allowed to operate.
Stores to remain open
Establishments offering essential services such as supermarkets, drugstores, banks and clinics would remain open during the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, the DTI stressed.
“Agriculture, manufacturing and services like even food preparation and deliveries and distribution of these basic necessities will still be allowed,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a Viber message to reporters.
In response to the growing number of COVID-19 cases, Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta has approved “drastic adjustments” in court operations until April 15, specifically opening only – with skeletal staff – to act on urgent cases.
“The Constitution and our laws are not suspended, and our courts are not shutting down in times of emergencies. But with the situation still rapidly evolving and an atmosphere of uncertainty pervading, we must all do everything we can, including making drastic adjustments in our operations without sacrificing the need to attend to urgent cases that affect life and liberty, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and protect the health and safety of our justices, judges, court workers, lawyers, and the public we serve,” Peralta said in an administrative circular.
The Philippine National Police (PNP), meanwhile, is appealing for more protective equipment for its personnel who are on the frontline of government efforts to contain the spread of the contagion.
PNP chief Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa made the appeal yesterday after reports surfaced over the weekend that police officers without face masks were manning at least 46 security checkpoints at the borders of Metro Manila.
“Actually ‘yun nga ang hinihingi namin (That’s what we’re asking for). We just need face masks and gloves,” he said in an interview over dzMM
The Philippine Army, for its part, said its doctors, Disaster Response Units (DRU) and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) units are on standby for quick deployment.
Army spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala said its DRU and CBRN units are equipped with personal protective equipment and mobility assets ready to assist the PNP in performing security and health protocols at checkpoints within Metro Manila.
“The safety of the personnel responding to the affected communities will also be given priority of the Army to further the service in the midst of the outbreak,” he said. -Louise Maureen Simeon, Delon Porcalla, Emmanuel Tupas, Michael Punongbayan, Paolo Romero, Louella Desiderio, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Romina Cabrera, Evelyn Macairan