Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas Jr. says the city will follow whatever the IATF decides for Talisay now that they have the right data at hand. | Contributed photo/Talisay City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — It will be upon the Interagency Task Force (IATF) to decide on the next steps for Talisay City.
Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas Jr., who attended the IATF meeting with Secretary Roy Cimatu on Wednesday, June 24, 2020, clarified that there is no change of quarantine control status for Talisay City as of Thursday, June 25, 2020.
However, he said that the city will follow whatever the IATF decides for the city now that they have the right data at hand.
“No change of status. We will wait for the final decision of IATF,” Gullas said in a message-reply to CDN Digital.
Just last Monday, June 21, Talisay City’s quarantine control status has been downgraded to a general community quarantine (GCQ) after it was earlier classified under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) by the national IATF last June 15.
Local officials here had since suspected that the distinct classification of the city was caused by the “erroneous” data on the recovery rate of the city’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
The downgrading to Talisay City’s status was endorsed by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia through an executive order that was concurred with by the regional IATF hence, the reclassification of the city to GCQ last Monday.
READ: Talisay City under GCQ on Monday
In a separate Facebook post on Thursday morning, Gullas said he will leave it to the IATF to decide on the next steps for the city now that local and national officials are now looking at the same data on hand.
“With the correct and right data at hand, I leave it to the IATF to decide the next steps for our city. Like I told them when we met in Seda Hotel, we will follow whatever the IATF decides because now we have harmonized data already,” Gullas wrote.
As of June 24, the city had breached the 200-mark in the number of COVID-19 cases after recording 13 new positives on Wednesday.
READ: Talisay City breaches 200-mark in COVID-19 cases
Starting midnight this Friday, June 26, strict border controls will already be implemented at the Talisay City-Cebu City boundary as Garcia’s executive order reverting border restriction policies to that of Section 8 in her Executive Order no. 17.
Talisay City’s border is the territorial jurisdiction boundary of Cebu province and Cebu City in the south.
Garcia earlier said the move is to stop the spread of the virus to the province’s towns as they observed that the cases in the province rose since they relaxed the border control with Cebu City last June 3.
“As far as Talisay is concerned, May 31 we had 54 cases. Now we have 200 and rising. Cases have [risen] in other areas of the province as well,” Gullas said.
The other borders between the province and Cebu City are Mandaue City in the north and the Municipality of Balamban in the west. /bmjo