A Cebu City resident’s refresher guide to ECQ

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City has once again been placed under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), which reinstates the stricter protocols in social distancing, movement, public transport, and travel.

The city residents may still be familiar with the protocols since the city was placed under ECQ for two months on April and May, before downgrading to a General Community Quarantine (GCQ) in the first half of June.

Yet for those who may have forgotten the protocols under ECQ, Mayor Edgardo Labella signed Executive Order (EO) No. 82 to reinstate the ECQ guidelines effectively Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

Here are the points to remember for the ECQ in Cebu City:

A. Mandatory Stay-at-home order and curfew. All Cebu City residents are mandated to stay at home, especially before during the curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily. Senior citizens and minors are not allowed to go outside except for emergencies.

Quarantine passes must be brought by residents buying essential goods for their families.

Exemption to this rule are government workers, health professionals, emergency personnel, media, fishermen, farmers, workers in agri-business, drivers for delivery vehicles, employees of exempted establishments, and law enforcement.

B. Government offices will remain open. All government agencies must remain open with only a skeletal workforce to man them, with the exemption of agencies providing health and emergency services.

Judicial offices or courts may also operate with a skeletal force, while regional offices must provide identification cards and passes for their employees who live outside the city.

C. Certain businesses can operate with limited workforce. Businesses involving health care, pharmaceuticals and medicine, agriculture and aquaculture, delivery services, and veterinary services can operate at full capacity.

Only half capacity will be allowed for businesses belonging to essential goods production, groceries, laundry shops, restaurants (only take-out), water refilling stations, and other commodities.

Media outlets in their offices shall also operate under half capacity.

Skeletal workforce is permitted for medical and dental clinics, veterinary clinics, banks, Capital markets, water supply and sanitation services, energy utilities, telecommunication companies, airline and aircraft maintenance, manufacturing companies, postal services, business process and outsourcing, funeral and embalming services, humanitarian organizations, churches and temples, security, printing, repair and maintenance, and real estates.

D. No normal hotel bookings. Hotel operations are strictly limited to housing stranded individuals, repatriated overseas Filipino workers, temporarily housed employees of exempted businesses, and health workers.

F. Mass gathering are strictly prohibited. All types of gatherings is prohibited with the exemption of necessary gatherings in the provision of government services or authorized humanitarian activities.

E. No public transport, number coding is retained. Shuttle service commissioned by the exempted businesses and the government are the only type of public transport allowed in the city.

The number coding for private vehicles and motorcycles will also continue with plate number ending in odd numbers traveling only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while plate numbers ending in even numbers traveling on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

All private vehicles can ply the streets on Sundays, as provided by EO No. 82.

Delivery vehicles, ambulances, shuttles, and other essential vehicles are exempted from the number coding.

F. Cargo vehicles can pass. Delivery of goods will remain unhampered under the ECQ and cargo delivery trucks do not need to show any passes to operate and shall remain unhampered in transit. This includes land, air, or sea cargoes.

G. Interzonal or Intrazonal movement is permitted for essential workers crossing the borders. Employees from nearby cities and town may be given entry if they are essential workers.

Interisland movement is only permitted to health care professionals, government workers, law enforcement and cargo.

H. Carbon Market schedule is retained. The Carbon Market will only be open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will follow the name coding scheme with the first letter of the family name as the basis for entry on certain days.

The market will be closed on Mondays for disinfection.

I. Mandatory wearing of masks. Masks should be worn in public places and the law enforcers are tasked to ensure that this is strictly followed.

Individuals not wearing masks may be apprehended.

J. Temporary waving of fees. Parking fees are waived in all city-managed parking lots or spaces within the duration of the ECQ.

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella urged the residents to continue following the ECQ protocols as he appeals to the Interagency Task Force to revert the city back under a GCQ.

He also ordered the barangays, police, and offices for the stricter implementation on the guidelines. /bmjo