Lawyer August Lizer Malate, head of the Mandaue City Emergency Operations Center (EOC), says the Mandaue City government will ask the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for COVID-19 to decide on recommendations of a unified curfew among the tri-cities — Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu. | Mary Rose Sagarino (file photo)
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — The Mandaue City government will follow what the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) on COVID-19 will decide on the recommendation of a unified curfew for the tri-cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu.
Lawyer August Lizer Malate, head of the Mandaue City Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said the Mandaue City government would send a letter to the RIATF asking for their decision on this recommendation.
Malate said they planned to send a letter to the RIATF after Mayor Jonas Cortes received requests from some establishments of the city seeking a unified curfew among the tri-cities.
These requests were forwarded by the Department of Interior and Local Government to the city mayor.
Read: Mandaue City mulling unified curfew with neighboring cities
Currently, the city’s curfew is from 11:00 pm to 4:00 a.m. In Cebu City the curfew runs from 11:00 p.m to 5:00 a.m while in Lapu Lapu City the curfew hours start from 10:00 p.m. and end at 5:00 am.
Malate said the reason the city’s curfew was more relax compared to the other two cities was because the city government would want to give businesses more operation time and also that Mandaue City was also between both cities where people would pass through.
Read: Lapu-Lapu Mayor Ahong Chan OK with unified curfew
Earlier, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Ahong Chan also said that he was in favor of unifying the curfew of the three cities.
Malate said the tri-cities had not meet to disscuss about the matter, and that the Mandaue City government would just wait for the recommendation of the RIATF (Regional Inter-Agency Task Force for COVID-19).
“Kay if we would like to be strict then ato’ng (patas-an ang curfew), if we would like to be relaxed saktong amoa, mubo ra. If they (RIATF) would say mas relaxed ta, silay (Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City) musunod nato,” said Malate.
(Because if we would like to be strict then we will [make the curfew hours longer], if we would like to be relaxed, then we are right, shortened [curfew hours]. If they (RIATF) would say that we should relax our curfew hours, then they (Lapu-Lapu and Cebu City] should be the one to follow our curfew hours.)
He said that the city could immediately issue an Executive Order on whatever the recommendation of the RIATF.
“Maoy among girequest nga si (R)IATF would really take the lead coordinating the tri-cities kay kami mo adjust ra man mi. Again, dili mi ordinansa so we can just make the proper executive order immediately … unlike sa uban nga city ordinansa ang ilang curfew,” he said.
/dbs
Read: Mandaue City again breaches 1K-mark in active cases
Read: What Mandaue City or Talisay City jeepneys can enter Cebu City?