MANILA – Allowing the use of tricycles, as being pushed by Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, will go against the safety measure of social distancing with the Luzon placed under extreme community quarantine.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said this in a media briefing at Malacañang Palace late Wednesday night, reiterating that Sotto should follow the lead of other mayors who have complied with the safety measures they have released.
Sotto earlier asked the national government to exempt tricycles from the ban on public transportation saying he had allowed tricycles in his area to ferry health workers and emergency patients to hospitals in Pasig City.
“Concerned talaga ang gobyerno dito sa pag gamit ng tricycle dahil hindi namin lubos makita o maintindihan kung paano mag-social distancing sa tricycle,” Nograles said. “Let’s stick to the common ground rules.”
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) lectured Sotto to check the means of other local government units in transporting health workers with the absence of tricycles.
“Kung ang purpose po natin ay health workers, sana po tingnan ng lungsod ng Pasig ‘yung ginawa ng ibang lungsod,” DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said Thursday.
Malaya also said that they cannot give in to the pleadings of Sotto as this would defeat the entire purpose of the Luzon quarantine. He added that the city government of Pasig has a lot of vehicles which they can utilize in transporting medical personnel./PN
