MANILA – Local government units (LGUs) may soon independently decide the quarantine classifications of their jurisdictions. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) considers phasing out the large-scale community quarantine encompassing provinces, cities and municipalities.
The country could shift into just imposing granular lockdowns, according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
“Ang mga LGUs naman talaga ang mas nakakaalam kung nasaan iyong mga areas of infection,” Roque pointed out.
Roque noted that the removal of community quarantines is possible as the country “accelerates its mass vaccination program” and with “fewer” vaccinated Filipinos getting hospitalized or dying from severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“Sa mula’t mula po, the science supports and our experience supports the view na mas epektibo po talaga ang localized and granular lockdowns. We are moving towards that direction,” Roque said.
“It has been approved in principle (by the IATF-EID),” the spokesperson said.
The IATF-MEID is now ironing out the details of the new scheme, which must also be approved by President Rodrigo Duterte prior to implementation.
In crafting the details, Roque said, the IATF-EID would also consider proposals on the reopening of more business establishments, but with different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
It was Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) undersecretary for operations Epimaco Densing who first made public the possible shift to granular lockdowns from the community quarantine classifications.
Densing said at the Laging Handa public briefing last week that the recommendation to forgo general lockdowns came from the IATF sub-technical working group on data analytics, which included the DILG.
“Pinaghahanda na natin ang mga lokal na gobyerno sa tinatawag nating policy shift on lockdowns,” Densing said. “Hahayaan po natin ang mga lokal na gobyerno, ang ating mga gobernador at mga mayor, na magdeklara ng mga granular lockdowns.”
“Dito sa granular lockdowns makakasigurado po tayo na there will be less mobility,” he added.
According to Densing, the national government’s would-be role in the granular lockdown is to “help LGUs” meet their needs when it comes to food aid in locked down areas.
With the new quarantine scheme yet to be finalized, the IATF-MEID has issued community quarantine restrictions for the entire country for the first seven days of September.
Over Western Visayas, Iloilo city and province, and Aklan will remain under modified enhanced community quarantine.
Bacolod City, Antique and Capiz, on the other hand, will still be under general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions for the same period, while Negros Occidental and Guimaras are still under the regular GCQ./PN