HQP implementation postponed

By Dolly Yasa

 

BACOLOD City – The implementation of the Home Quarantine Pass system and check-up points in Bacolod City that were to start Thursday was deferred due to clamors of barangay officials.

It will instead start on Sunday until Sept 19, Mayor Evelio Leonardia said in Executive Order No. 58-A, Series of 2020, issued Wednesday.

The postponement is meant to give time to complete the distribution of the passes to barangays.

Leonardia also said that the deferment will allow for a longer period of information dissemination to Bacolod residents and those residing outside the city.

The mayor said he ordered the enforcement of the HQP system and check-up points by virtue of a Sangguniang Panlungsod ordinance granting him emergency authority in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This allows me to impose short term measures to augment minimum health protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he added.

In a consultative meeting, medical groups pleaded for a two-week slowdown in the movement of people in Bacolod City, Leonardia said.

He emphasized that the HQPs and check-up points will regulate the movement of people within Bacolod and the entry and exit of out-of-towners as a means of stemming the local spread of COVID-19.

In a statement furnished to the media here, Association of Barangay Captains President Councilor Lady Gles Pallen said that as president of the Liga ng Barangay of Bacolod City “I strongly appeal to Mayor Evelio Leonardia to postpone the HQP system.”

Pallen said they have not anticipated that in the middle of the distribution of HQPs “to our surprise we were asked to attend to the pay-out of SAP (Social Amelioration Program) grants of our constituents.”