MOVING FORWARD: City eyes to restart economy, masses amid to fight COVID-19

By Emme Rose Santiagudo

Money and masses versus the virus.

Iloilo City is bent on restarting the economy after it was declared a low-risk area for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) alongside other areas in Western Visayas.

According to Mayor Jerry Treñas, their main focus is to reopen the economy regardless of the city’s community quarantine status.

“One thing we need to understand is that our city is the regional center and as the regional center, many are counting on us. We are not serving only the city but the whole island of Panay. Well, whatever [quarantine status] we may be in, we really have to start restarting the economy,” he said in a radio interview on Wednesday.

Considering that most of the workers in the city are from the neighboring provinces, the mayor stressed that there is a need for the city to move forward with its economy by the end of May.

“Employees of businesspeople here in the city are not only from the city, but many are from the province. We have to make sure that they will have work available for them. That is why we really need to move forward. I welcome very much the openness of provinces to talk about how we are going to go about this, but we have to move forward. It’s not acceptable that we stay like this,” he said.

Aside from the focus on the economy, Treñas said he is also pushing for the resumption of religious activities.

He emphasized that prayer is needed now especially in fighting the pandemic.

“One thing I’ll do now is find a way for us to start going to mass again. I think it’s time for us to pray. With this big problem we’re facing, it’s time for us to go back to God so we can pray that we be given the strength and the knowledge so we can get through this biggest problem in our life,” he said.

The national government announced that Western Visayas and all other low-risk areas in the country will be placed under modified general community quarantine (GCQ) by May 16, 2020.

Under the modified GCQ, low-risk area can allow “permissive socio-economic activities with minimum public health standards.”

Treñas said they will abide by the guidelines that are yet to be released by the national Inter Agency Task Force (IATF).

The mayor said he is planning to restart the economy slowly, particularly in the reopening of malls and business establishments at 50 percent operational capacity.

“My plan is to slowly do it. For example, only 50 percent can enter malls. Employees should also be only at 50 percent. That also goes for all establishments all over the city, at 50 percent. We should also limit cars. We’ll not allow anyone to just go out and just loiter around all over the city,” he said.

On Wednesday, the ad hoc committee, regional IATF, and the COVID-19 team in the city met to discuss the re-opening of the city and the measures to adapt after May 15.

“We also discussed many strategies from the different sectors they think will be best to follow for the good of our society. We have discussed the guidelines that the National IATF released, wherein they have based their decision on putting the Region VI to low risk status,” the mayor said.

The mayor is set to issue guidelines on the implementation of the modified GCQ in Iloilo City within this week.