CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City will be strictly implementing a one quarantine pass per household policy for its next release of Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) passes.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said on Wednesday evening, June 24, 2020, that this is to further control the movement of the people around the city.
“There should only be one pass per household. Before some households had two passes, sometimes three passes. That cannot be the case now,” said the mayor.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has ordered the revocation of the previous ECQ passes starting 10 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, 2020.
Despite the revocation of the passes, many residents still went out of their homes to buy from stores in an attempt to stock up supplies for the possibility of a hard-lockdown, which remains to be unverified by the IATF.
Though many barangays report fewer people going out, there are still quite a number of people on the streets.
With this, the city will only provide one pass per household for limited movement. Only the essential and authorized workers will be allowed to go out unhampered.
Labella said that in the next few days, the IATF and Cebu City will be discussing how to manage the distribution of the passes since the city does not want to make the same mistake in the past.
In the previous distribution of the passes, many residents complained that the passes were not enough.
The mayor said this time, there will be a master list that both the city and the police can use as a reference for the user of the ECQ pass per household.
“We still have to meet for the specific guidelines. Of course, the very basic protocol remains that generally people are asked to stay home, and only the exemptions are allowed to go out,” said the mayor.
The mayor said the city will provide further updates on , June 25, 2020. /bmjo