Gov’t eyes extending lockdown to April 30

By Argyll Cyrus Geducos

President Duterte said the government was inclined to extend the Luzon-wide partial lockdown or enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) until April 30 as the country continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Duterte made the statement in his late-night public address Monday, six days before the ECQ ends on Easter Sunday.

In his hour-long address, Duterte told the public that the ECQ may be extended until the end of the month.

“If you really want to know, we have discussed it actually even before this, we are inclined to extend the lockdown up to April 30. Tingnan natin after that (We’ll see after that),” he said.

“In the meantime, mag double-time kami sa tinatawag niyong (we’ll go over the proposal for the) middle class,” he added, referring to Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla’s appeal to include the middle-income earners in the government’s social amelioration program.

Earlier, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said President Duterte was seriously evaluating recommendations before making his decision on the ECQ soon.

“The President is seriously evaluating the inputs and suggestions given by various sectors of society for either the extension or the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine or lockdown, and will take the best option that will purge us of this pandemic disease. He will announce his decision very soon,” he said.

He said Duterte was appealing to the public to take the COVID-19 situation seriously and follow the protocols set by the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“They were placed there for the protection and survival of everyone. Any transgressor will be dealt with in accordance with the law,” Panelo said.

Cabinet Secretary and IATF spokesman Karlo Nograles said lifting, extending, or expanding the Luzon-wide ECQ will not be an easy decision to make as there were a lot of factors to be considered.

He, however, acknowledged that it was important to make a decision soon.

“We have to make a decision and we have to make it as soon as possible,” he said Monday.

“It will not be an easy decision, napakahirap po, it’s very, very difficult, only because ang daming factors na kailangan namin tingnan: kapakanan ng taumbayan, ang (there are a lot of factors that we need to look at: the welfare of the public, the) health, economic, social, security, medical,” he added.

Nograles earlier said an IATF sub-technical working group headed by the Department of Health (DOH) was directed to convene all concerned agencies and to finalize the aggregation and analysis of all relevant data applicable to the contained area.

The parameters adopted by the IATF for deciding on the total or partial lifting or the possible extension or expansion of the ECQ are:

1. Trends in the COVID-19 epidemiological curve, which include, among others, the doubling time, acceleration, or deceleration of new cases;
2. Capacity of the health care system, which includes, among others, the number and availability of quarantine, isolation, and treatment facilities; capability to mount contact tracing; availability of personal protective equipment (PPEs) for frontliners; and the testing capacity of the country;
3. Social factors;
4. Economic factors; and
5. Security factors.

Luzon is under an enhanced community quarantine until April 12 due to the threat of COVID-19. To date, the country has reported 3,660 COVID-19 cases, 73 of whom have recovered while 163 died.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/04/06/govt-eyes-extending-lockdown-to-april-30/

Duterte ‘inclined’ to extend Luzon-wide quarantine until April 30

The Duterte administration is inclined to extend the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine until April 30 as the government continues to grapple with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte said in a televised address on Monday.

“If you really want to know, we have discussed it actually even before this, we are inclined to extend the lockdown up to April 30,” Duterte said.

The Luzon-wide quarantine was originally targeted to be lifted by April 14.

The Philippines has so far recorded 3,660 cases of COVID-19 and 163 fatalities.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1254850/break-duterte-inclined-to-extend-luzon-wide-quarantine-until-april-30

Rizal province under lockdown amid growing number of coronavirus cases

Non-residents of Rizal can no longer enter the province except for those exempted by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease

Rizal province was placed under lockdown starting Monday, April 6, a necessary move amid its “growing number” of coronavirus cases.

Acting Rizal Governor Reynaldo San Juan Jr signed Executive Order 14 on Saturday, April 4.

The EO said that, as of March 29, Rizal had recorded 58 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. It had resulted in 8 deaths. As of April 5, the health department's tracker recorded 105 cases in Rizal.

Cainta has 25 recorded COVID-19 cases, the most among the province’s 8 cities and towns. Antipolo has 17 cases, followed by Taytay with 9.

The Rizal Mayors’ League “unanimously passed a resolution” recommending that the entire province be placed under lockdown. The lockdown began at 8 am Monday and will be in effect “until otherwise lifted.”

“This is to further protect the whole province from entering possible carriers of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),” the provincial government said in a Facebook post where it announced the lockdown.

Rizal implements its own lockdown on the final week of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte from March 16 to April 12 to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19 is still deliberating whether or not to extend the Luzon lockdown.

As of Monday, the COVID-19 cases in the country has soared to 3,660, with 163 deaths, and 73 recoveries, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Under Rizal’s lockdown rules, non-residents of the province can no longer enter the province except for those exempted by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) including “public and private health workers, emergency frontliners, government workers, diplomats, media personnel, religious ministers as well as employees who are part of the skeletal workforce of various businesses related to basic services and commodities as well as BPO and hotel industry.”

Cargo trucks and vehicles transporting food commodities and farm inputs to designated food lanes are still allowed to go inside and out of the province.

The EO directs the establishment of 24/7 checkpoints to enforce the border restriction, following the guidelines of the Joint Task Force Corona Virus Shield (JTF CV Shied).

The EO has strict reminders that “human rights shall be respected and protected at all times in the operations of the checkpoints.”

It also reminded all personnel at the checkpoint to observe physical distancing and wear personal protective equipment (PPEs).

The EO also suspended all forms of public transportation, but called on the cities and towns to provide vehicles for medical frontliners and health workers.

An express lane for those who need medical attention as well as for donations for frontliners and hospitals from donors will be set up.

The provincial government called on Rizal’s residents to stay at home as the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) had imposed a 24-hour curfew, except for family members with quarantine passes to buy food and other essential commodities.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/257177-rizal-province-lockdown-coronavirus-april-2020

Solons call for ‘staggered lifting’ of lockdown, ECQ extension

While two congressmen backed the extension of the Luzon-wide community quarantine, a lawmaker from Cebu is appealing for a “staggered lifting” of the lockdown aimed to contain the further spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In a statement on Monday, Cebu City 2nd District Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa said the country’s COVID-19 inter-agency task force should employ a staggered lifting of the enhanced community quarantine by implementing localized quarantines instead.

“This Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) has brought together the clashing issues on controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the resultant massive unemployment, public health and nutrition consequences, and the inadequacies of the government to feed millions of people,” Abellanosa said.

He said his proposal would offer a “partial win-win solution.”

“Instead of bugging ourselves with the issue on whether to lift or not to lift the ECQ, may I propose a staggered lifting of ECQ by concurrently transforming it into localized lockdowns or local quarantines – by barangays or clusters of puroks or sitios; and by employment communities such as construction, food production, food processing, manufacturing, call centers, building maintenance, and the like,” he explained.

Further, the lawmaker proposed that food deliveries and public transportation be allowed to operate but only within the local quarantines.

Proper authorities must persuade supermarkets, big grocery stores, and food wholesalers to hire out-of-work drivers, cashiers, and baggers and to lease standby jeepneys, trucks, and buses to set up mobile stores in local quarantines, he added.

He said this would minimize the confusion and problems arising from the issuance of quarantine passes for people to access stores outside of the local quarantines.

Abellanosa said police and law enforcers must actively discourage residents from going out of their local quarantines in order to effectively contain and isolate the local quarantines from each other except for health and medical reasons and the delivery of government aids but also ensure the unhampered movement of all food and non-food cargoes.

“We understand the public health and safety is the foremost concern of the government. But we need to come up with more creative solutions to containing this disease while ensuring that our people continue to have access to and afford basic necessities,” Abellanosa said.

Extend ECQ

Meanwhile, Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman said the government “must seriously consider the urgency of conducting mass testing for COVID-19 infection in its decision whether or not to extend the lockdown policy in the National Capital Region (NCR), the rest of Luzon, and elsewhere in the country.”

“It would be extremely difficult to implement initial selective and subsequent comprehensive mass testing in a dispersed and mobile population,” Lagman said in a separate statement.

“The projected start of mass testing after the lockdown expiration will be counter-productive,” he added.

According to Lagman, the remaining days before the scheduled lifting of the enhanced community quarantine would “not be sufficient” to “adequately conduct mass testing even for selected cases of persons under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs).”

President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to increase.

The quarantine became effective on March 17 and will be lifted on April 13.

“Stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus is very complicated and cannot be answered by isolation and social distancing alone because so many COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic,” Lagman said.

“These patients can unknowingly be virus hotbeds and contribute to the more rapid spread of the disease, thus making mass testing more crucial,” he added.

He, however, stressed that “any extension must be coupled with continued social amelioration packages for the disadvantaged sectors and displaced workers as well as a steady food supply.”

House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. also joined calls to extend the enhanced community quarantine.

“I concur with my good friend and colleague, Rep. Salceda when he says we should look at the data and heed the input of our scientists and medical professionals,” said the lawmaker. 

Abante was referring to Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, who wanted to extend the quarantine for another two weeks, noting that a “premature lifting of the ECQ would not be good for the economy.”

Abante said that “whatever decisions we make regarding this outbreak should factor in the numbers and should take into consideration the experiences of other nations that have grappled with this pandemic.”

“Containing this outbreak should be our number one priority, and data from all over the world shows that measures such as the ECQ are effecting in reducing the transmission of the virus. So let us continue doing this until the data shows it is safe for us to live the ECQ,” he said.

The lawmaker further urged the government to step up the distribution of subsidies to underprivileged families “in order to ensure that no one goes hungry while they are forced by circumstances to stay indoors.”

To date, Philippine health officials have confirmed 3,660 COVID-19 cases in the country.

Of the number, 163 have died while 73 have recovered.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1254789/solons-on-staggered-lifting-of-lockdown-ecq-extension

Bigger Clark airport terminal 96% finished —Megawide

The construction of Clark International Airport’s new passenger terminal building is on track despite the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, according to project builder Megawide Construction Corp.

“Construction of the new terminal, access roads, bus station and car parks is 96-percent complete with only minor works remaining. Despite any challenges we are facing, we were actually ahead of schedule before the ECQ was implemented in Luzon,” Megawide chairman and chief executive Edgar Saavedra said.

Saavedra said the new terminal building shell was substantially completed while the installation of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection works and the construction of the landside works were in the final stages.

Construction of the new Clark Airport PTB is being undertaken by Megawide GMR Construction Joint Venture Inc.

MGCJV won the construction package of the Clark International Airport expansion project in December 2017 by submitting the lowest bid of P9.36 billion under a hybrid public-private partnership scheme.

Saavedra said Megawide is confident the project would be turned over to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority before the July 31, 2020 completion date if the lockdown was lifted on April 14.

“The ECQ has minimal impact on our construction timelines for Clark International Airport primarily because engineering and construction are Megawide’s core strengths and the fact that we leveraged on what we learned from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport expansion,” he said.

The partnership of Megawide and Indian airport developer GMR is also behind the development of the MCIA and the contractor of the multi-awarded MCIA Terminal 2.

“We learned a lot during the construction of MCIA Terminal 2. We applied all these learnings in the Clark project, including engineering techniques such as the use of glued-laminated timber for a full roof structure, and many others,” Saavedra said.

“That we were ahead of schedule in the construction of the new Clark PTB is a testament to the all the hard work and dedication of the people on the ground such as our engineering and construction teams; our architect, Integrated Design Associates, who also designed MCIA Terminal 2; and the support of our stakeholders, especially the BCDA and DOTR,” he said.

The new terminal is designed to increase the capacity of the airport from 4 million passengers to 12 million passengers a year.

https://manilastandard.net/business/transport-tourism/321189/bigger-clark-airport-terminal-96-finished-megawide.html

PNP gears up for imminent extension of Luzon-wide quarantine

Even if the government has yet to decide on the extension or expansion of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Monday it is already preparing for such a probability.

According to PNP, among its preparations is the creation of the PNP Administrative Support to COVID-19 Operations Task Force (ASTF), which will ensure the “efficient” delivery of administrative support for the ongoing operations of Joint Task Force COVID-19 Shield.

PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa has designated Deputy Chief for Administration Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan as the task force commander with Directorial Staff chief Maj. Gen. Cesar Binag as assistant task force commander.

In a statement, Gamboa said the establishment of ASTF is in “preparation for a possible extension of the Enhanced Community Quarantine in Luzon, and management of local health emergencies in other areas.”

“We are preparing our optimum and efficient management, distribution and utilization of resources and supply chain for the long haul,” he also said in a statement.

Officials from the eight PNP Directorial Staff offices were designated as members of the task force to oversee administrative requirements within the functional field of their respective directorates.

The officials will compose the five functional task groups under ASTF, which are the following:

• Task Group Personnel Support: to supervise deployment, reserve forces, and legal support
• Task Group Logistical Support: to oversee requirements for transportation, PPE, decontamination facilities, food supply, communication requirements, and test kits
• Task Group Financial Support: to ensure timely provision of financial support to implement activities of ASTF in support of Joint Task Force COVID-19 Shield
• Task Group Health Management and Medical Reserve Force: to address health-related issues in the operations of Joint Task Force COVID-19 Shield and provide real-time monitoring of the status of PNP personnel affected by COVID-19
• Task Group Contact Tracing: to ensure timely and efficient contact tracing of PNP personnel confirmed or suspected to be infected

Among the administrative actions earlier implemented by PNP were adjustments in the deployment of personnel to frontline operations to protect families of PNP personnel, processing hazard pay to police frontliners, and a 30-day suspension of loan payments by PNP personnel to accredited private financial institutions and lending houses.

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the whole of Luzon under enhanced community quarantine until midnight of April 13 to contain the transmission of COVID-19, a highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, which outbreak started in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province in China late last year.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1254767/pnp-gears-up-for-imminent-extension-of-luzon-wide-quarantine

COVID-19 forces cancellation of Araw ng Kagitingan rites

The government has cancelled this year’s celebration of Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) and other events for Philippine Veterans’ Week as COVID-19 continued to menace countries around the world, including the Philippines.

The events would be rescheduled after the lifting of the enhanced community quarantine now in place in the whole Luzon island, according to the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office in an advisory on Monday (April 6).

The Araw ng Kagitingan was scheduled on April 9 while the Philippine Veterans Week was set on April 3 to 7.

The decision was made “in line with the enhanced community quararntine and to ensure the safety of our veterans from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

But the PVAO urged the public to continue observing Araw ng Kagitingan, a national holiday, to pay tribute to Filipino and American heroes of Bataan province, where US and Philippine soldiers took their last stand against invading Japanese Imperial Army forces during World War II.

Veterans of the Second World War could be considered among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 as the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions had been found to have the highest infection and mortality rate among those infected by the virus that causes the disease.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1254692/covid-19-forces-cancellation-of-araw-ng-kagitingan-rites

New terminal at Clark airport seen completed by end of June

The construction of Clark International Airport's new passenger terminal building (PTB) is scheduled to be completed by the end of June even with the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) placed over Luzon.

According to private concessionaire Megawide Construction Corp., it is confident that the construction project may be turned over to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) by July 31, 2020, should the lockdown end as scheduled on June 30.

"The ECQ has minimal impact on our construction timelines for Clark International Airport primarily because engineering and construction are Megawide’s core strengths and the fact that we leveraged on what we learned from the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) expansion," Megawide chairman and chief executive officer Edgar Saavedra said in an emailed statement.

He was referring to the ECQ placed over Luzon from 12 midnight on March 17 until 11:59 p.m. on June 30, restricting travel within the region in efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

"Construction of the new terminal, access roads, bus station, and car parks is 96% complete with only minor works remaining. Despite any challenges we are facing, we were actually ahead of schedule before the ECQ was implemented in Luzon," said Saavedra.

Construction of the new Clark Airport PTB is being undertaken by Megawide GMR Construction Joint Venture Inc. (MGCJV), which won after submitting the lowest bid at P9.36 billion under a hybrid public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/companies/732842/new-terminal-at-clark-airport-seen-completed-by-end-of-june/story/?just_in