ILOILO City – Just like its neighboring provinces in Western Visayas, this highly-urbanized city would also like to be classified under the lenient modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Yesterday, Mayor Jerry Treñas appealed the decision of the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to keep the metro under GCQ for the entire January next year.
“We hope to receive a word from the IATF soon,” Treñas said.
He sent a letter of appeal to National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chairperson and Defense secretary Delfin Lorenza, NTF vice chairman and Interior secretary Eduardo Año, NTF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., IATF co-chairman and Cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles, and Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
Treñas’ appeal would likely be granted, said Director Juan Jovan Ingeniero of the Department of Interior and Local Government Region 6.
“At 12 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I was on the phone with Secretary Año and he told me our appeal may be granted considering the improvement they have seen in our coronavirus situation,” Ingeniero.
As of Dec. 29, the metro had a total of 4,652 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections – 4,386 of which recovered, leaving 116 active cases being monitored.
This was the fourth straight month of Iloilo City under GCQ, while Iloilo province, Negros Occidental, Guimaras, Aklan, Antique, and Capiz stayed under MGCQ since June.
In a public address Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte announced the community quarantine status for the first month of 2021 despite fear of possible surge in COVID-19 cases due to the holiday season./PN
