Cebu City Council majority floor leader Raymond Garcia /CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippine — Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia said that the city could no longer print additional quarantine passes for the barangays.
In a phone interview with CDN Digital, Garcia said that the purpose of the quarantine passes was to prohibit the number of people going out.
“If Cebu City has a total population of 1 million, and we only give out 250,000 passes, only 250,000 will be going out,” he said.
Read more: Tumulak: Honor barangay-issued quarantine passes for the meantime
He understands that the barangays are being pressured by their constituents to provide the promised passes per household, but he said the barangays would have to be creative on how to handle the situation.
He urged sharing of the passes per village or per compound since not every household will be going out to buy their needs at once.
Garcia discouraged the barangays to distribute their own passes because this would cause confusion for the police.
Read more: Cebu City brgys told to wait for release of ‘official’ passes from City Hall
However, since there is a deficiency in passes compared to the actual number of households, he will be asking Mayor Edgardo Labella if he will allow barangay passes as long as they can only be used within the territorial jurisdicition of the barangays.
Still, Garcia said he would advise against it because it would cause confusion for the law enforcement.
As for the reports that the lack of passes might cause security concerns in the neighborhoods especially if the residents would begin to fight over the use of shared passes, Garcia said this would have to be studied carefully.
He said that unlike the martial law time when people would follow the curfew because of fear of military tanks on the streets, this time, the enemy is unseen.
He urges the public to remain calm and cooperate with the city’s quarantine protocols to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus./dbs