‘THE CITY IS SAFE’: Mayor mulls relaxed restrictions on businesses

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas on Wednesday expressed his eagerness to revive the city’s economy amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, saying he will appeal to regional and national authorities to ease restrictions on capacities and operations of businesses.

Treñas, along with Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon and members of the city council, went to four malls in the city to check on their compliance with the health standards set by national and local authorities.

Also present were Iloilo City Lone District Representative Julienne Baronda and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-6 Regional Director Jose Jovian Ingeniero.

Speaking to the press after the inspections, Treñas said the city was safe and is complying with the Department of Health’s (DOH) health standards.

“Our malls here in the city are adhering to all the minimum health standards of the DOH. We are safe here in the city. I also want to say that we in the city government, together with [Rep. Baronda] and [Director Ingeniero], we want to encourage more economic activities,” the mayor said.

He said that he will be writing to the Western Visayas Regional Task Force on COVID-19 (WVRTF) as well as the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to allow more people in restaurants.

“I will be writing to the [WVRTF] requesting them to already allow up to 75 percent of the capacity of the restaurants, because as we’re seeing, we’re following the standards. I will also write to the national IATF to allow restaurants to sit families together, because when they are together at home, they don’t wear masks or do social distancing. We should encourage more activities,” he said.

Treñas also said he will allow malls to hold activities, provided that they will continue to observe standards.

“I was even telling the malls, that we will be allowing events, as long as there will be proper observance of physical and social distancing. We will really try, as much as possible,” he said.

 

BALANCE

Ingeniero told media that he did not hesitate to accept the mayor’s invitation to join their inspection, saying that it was in line with the national government’s goal of balancing the health and economy of the country.

“When the mayor invited me to join, I said ‘Go’, because the current focus of the national IATF is to balance health, security, and the economy. Studies have said that [COVID-19] will not go away. It will take one to two years, like dengue. It’s there, dangerous, but the vaccine will be coming. In the meantime, we have to assure the people that our LGUs are capable of handling the virus. It means that health protocols are followed and at the same time, patients are well-treated,” Ingeniero said.

He said that local government units (LGU) must assume responsibility when restrictions are relaxed.

“I’m not the only one deciding. If the [WVRTF] approves it, it may be conditional, wherein the restaurant can provide the necessary physical distancing and health standards. If we issue the resolution, we also issue the safeguard, that the LGU must assume responsibility on the implementation,” he said.