Officials of Barangay Bacayan and the Cebu City government led by Councilors Dave Tumulak and Joel Garganera inspect the Bacayan Elementary School, which is being prepared to house the 40 new patients in the barangay. | Photos courtesy of Barangay Bacayan
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is willing to help public schools here during the enrollment process that the Department of Education (DepEd) announced will push through from June 1 to June 30, 2020.
City government spokesperson Lawyer Rey Gealon said the city will help ensure that social distancing will be observed throughout the enrollment process. The police will also be stationed to ensure peace and order during the enrollment period.
The DepEd has set the enrollment period to one month so the students and parents will not have to crowd schools and social distancing can still be practiced.
The national government is still planning on the actual start of the classes after President Rodrigo Duterte said that he will not allow classes to start without a vaccine for the coronavirus.
Read: Duterte: No COVID-19 vaccine? Opening of classes ‘useless’
Read: Cebu mayors back Duterte’s ‘no vaccine, no classes’
“Akong panghinaot nga walay modagsa nga mga ginikanan sa enrollment. Walay magtapok tutal ang gisulti enrollment paman, dili paman magsugod ang klase,” said Gealon.
(What we are hoping is that parents will not flock the schools during the enrollment. Hopefully there will be no crowds since it is only enrollment and not the start of classes.)
Meanwhile, the city government is silent on the fate of the 19 public schools in the city that was converted into barangay isolation centers (BICs) for COVID-19 patients.
The BICs actively serve as homes to asymptomatic COVID-19 patients while they undergo 14 or 28 days of quarantine, or until they test negative to the virus.
The DepEd in Central Visayas has already asked the city to vacate the schools by June 15, 2020. /bmjo