Capitol lifts curfew, 5-day workweek resumes

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson on Thursday announced the lifting of the curfew in the province and the resumption of the 5-day workweek for capitol employees.

Earlier, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia issued Executive Order No. 25 which also lifted the imposition of curfew hours beginning Tuesday in line with the desire to accelerate economic recovery efforts.

Lacson told reporters that the lifting of the curfew is based on the recommendation of the business sector in the province.

“There is a clamor especially from the business sector, that it is about time we lift the curfew ” the governor said.

He said the lifting of the curfew will take effect on June 1, 2022 together with the resumption of the 5-day work week for capitol employees.

The governor also said he is aware that there are 19 reported COVID cases as of Wednesday, adding that he talked to Provincial Health Officer Dr. Ernell Tumimbang who will investigate and do a retest.

Meanwhile, in Executive Order No. 25 signed by Leonardia, the curfew hours from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. has already been lifted, thus allowing the local government to take steps to further revitalize business activities and promote consumer spending.

“In line with its recovery plans, the city finds it imperative that the movements of people during the new normal should be eased and be made less constricted,” according to the executive order.

Bacolod City is one of the 39 LGUs that belong to the first batch of cities, towns, and provinces out of more than 2,000 local government units throughout the country to have been de-escalated to Alert Level 1 by the National Inter-Agency Task Force in March 2022.

The NIATF said Bacolod’s inclusion was primarily due to its very high vaccination rate and continued consistent decline of COVID-19 infections, indicators that the LGU had managed the pandemic well, the task force noted.

Leonardia pointed out that COVID-19 cases in Bacolod have gone down and remained low since February this year.

“All these accomplishments were primarily because of the cooperation of all stakeholders, the Bacolodnons from all walks,” he said.

If we were in school, Leonardia continued, Bacolod would have been a class valedictorian or one with the top honors in class considering that it was in the first batch of LGUs out of more than 2,000 to be placed under Alert Level 1 by the national government.