Cebu City Council to hold sessions online

Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama says the City Council has agreed to hold their regular sessions online amid the Coronavirus Disease  threat in the country today.| CDN Digital File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council will be conducting their sessions online following the declaration of a state of public health emergency in the country.

This declaration carries with it an advisory to practice social distancing amidst the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Read more: BREAKING: Duterte declares state of public health emergency over coronavirus

Vice Mayor Michael Rama said that council members had agreed to postpone all public hearings from March 18 to March 25.

They also agreed to conduct their regular sessions online.

The council conducted a special hearing on Friday, March 13, 2020, to discuss the precautionary measures of the city’s legislative body.

Rama said through this way, there would be no need to suspend the regular sessions, which usually would draw crowds of stakeholders.

Read more: Cebu City Council public hearings moved to Wednesdays

This number of people in an enclosed place might cause the virus to spread more quickly.

Read more: Duque seeks ban on church masses, moviegoing

No backlogs for Cebu City Council

Though the public hearings would be suspended, the sessions would have to go on so that the council would not have backlogs.

However, the council also agreed to decrease the number of agenda so that the online sessions would not go on for too long.

This is because the online session will be subject to various factors including signal connection.

“We will do the sessions online using Zoom. We will also post the session on Facebook live so the public can see it,” said Rama.

The council will also continue to monitor if there is a need to continue suspending the public sessions or it may extend the suspension if necessary. /dbs