Toledo imposes earlier curfew hours

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Non-workers and non-exempt persons in Toledo City must be home before 9 p.m.

Toledo City will be imposing a longer curfew, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., from the present 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in a bid to curtail the spread of COVID-19 cases in the city located at the midwest section of Cebu.

Read: Toledo City death count now at 16

Mayor Marjorie Perales’ Executive Order No. 70, which provided for the new policy, will take effect on September 18, 2020.

John Roseller Layan, the city’s information officer, said the enforcement of an earlier and a longer curfew would be to deter people, especially the youth, from going out of their residences.

The new curfew, Layan said, was the clamor of the barangay chiefs who complained of young residents who loiter around their barangays since the curfew was still at 10 p.m.

“She (Perales) consulted the 38 barangay captains and majority of them agreed nga mo-stick sila sa 9 p.m. nga start sa curfew. Na-notice man gud nila nga naay minority dinhi labi na sa kabatan-onan nga nagpabilin nga nagmagahi sa mga protocols mao na nga gi-9 p.m.,” Layan told CDN Digital via phone.

(She (Perales) consulted the 38 barangay captains and majority of them agreed that they would stick to the 9 p.m. start of curfew. They noticed a minority of youth who did not heed the protocols and that is the reason for the 9 p.m. start of curfew.)

Read: Mayor Perales orders granular lockdown in 2 sitios in Brgy DAS, Toledo City

He said that the city wanted to further strictly implement the policies as they logged more cases of COVID-19 in one of their barangays.

As of September 13, the Toledo City Health Department has reported 44 active cases out of its 246 total confirmed cases./dbs