MANILA – The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas to make sure that all public and private cemeteries are closed from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4.
“We expect LGUs to cooperate by ensuring that cemeteries within their localities are closed. Ito’y para walang mass gathering ngayong panahon ng pandemya,” Año said.
Despite being disallowed, some people may attempt to visit cemeteries on All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2), which Filipinos traditionally mark by visiting the graves of their dead kin.
The cemetery closure order was recommended by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and approved by President Rodrigo Duterte last month.
It aims to avoid massive gatherings that increase the risk of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission.
From Sept. 17 to Nov. 15 excluding the aforementioned dates, cemeteries are open but they should only accommodate visitors 30 percent of their capacity. Ederly and children will be allowed to visit cemeteries during this time.
According to Año, all police commanders are tasked to ensure that all cemeteries are compliant to quarantine protocols.
“All local chief executives and local police commanders should have discussed the rules that would be implemented per locality, all these should conform to the guidelines set by the national government,” Año said.
Father Angelo Colada, director of the Archdiocese of Jaro’s Commission on Social Communications, earlier said prayers is what’s essential on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day and this need not be done in the cemetery.
“We go back sa real liturgy. We always pray for the dead. Nagadumdom kita. The best way is to pray bisan dira sa aton puloy-an. Puede man maka-access kita sa simbahan kay wala man naga-close ang simbahan,” Colada told Panay News.
In a related development, the highly-urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod are staying under general community quarantine for the entire month of November.
Other parts of Western Visayas – Iloilo province, Negros Occidental, Guimaras, Aklan, Antique and Capiz – remain under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) from Oct. 1 to 31.
These quarantine classifications were based on the recommendation made by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) but still subject to appeal from concerned local government units
According to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the final quarantine classification for the month of November will be released on Thursday.
The IATF-EID earlier considered placing areas do not have COVID-19 transmission in the past months under the “new normal” classification.
Data from the Department of Health as of Tuesday showed Western Visayas’ cumulative COVID-19 cases at 16,181 – 3,059 were active cases. There were also 375 casualties and a total of 12,747 recovered patients./PN