Labella, Ferro recommend maintaining GCQ status in Cebu City
An aerial shot over Cebu City taken on Wednesday, July 22, 2020. contributed photo | Ella Elardo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella and Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), prefer that Cebu City remained under general community quarantine (GCQ) status.
According to Labella, he would prefer that GCQ status will be maintained as there is still a need to observe the public’s behavior in relation to their awareness of following the required minimum health standards.
“We will be happy if there is going to be a downgrade on modified GCQ. But if you ask me, I would rather that we maintain the general community quarantine status because there is better control of the movement of people,” said Labella after the send-off ceremony of the augmented Special Action Force (SAF) troops here on Tuesday morning, August 11, 2020.
Read: SAF troops in Cebu City to return to HQ COVID-free
Labella said that the city has learned its lesson on the first implementation of the GCQ, where the people disregarded the health standards imposed and in turn caused the surge of COVID-19 cases.
He said that it is important that people learn to adapt “self discipline” in terms of exercising the rules.
Ferro, for his part, also said that it would be safer if the city still follow gradual downgrading so the public will not be overwhelmed and get too excited to go out once downgraded to MGCQ.
He said that he would want the GCQ status to be maintained until September.
“Di ta mag MGCQ dayun so that there will be a gradual process sa de-escalation sa atoang quarantine level,” said Ferro.
(Let’s not downgrade to MGCQ right away so that there will be a gradual process in the de-escalation of the quarantine level.)
Ferro said that the public has been very cooperative lately and that there is no room to be complacent given that the city has experienced a surge during the first downgrading of the status.
He said that the authorities would want to emphasize the gradual lifting of restrictions to make sure that people understood the importance of observing the health standards. /bmjo
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