CAVITE Gov. Jonvic Remulla on Monday ordered the closure of all malls in the province for violating social distancing regulations during the weekend when the province transitioned to general community quarantine (GCQ) category from the very strict enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
The announcement came a day after Interior Secretary Eduardo Año directed Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, head of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, to close down malls and other establishments that will fail to enforce social distancing and other health safety rules while the country remains under different quarantine levels because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Cavite transitioned to GCQ last Saturday, malls in the province were allowed to reopen provided these observe minimum health standards like social distancing and wearing of face mask.
“All mall(s) in Cavite are temporarily closed due to their (failure to enforce) social distancing,” said Remulla in an announcement which he posted on the province’s official Facebook page. The closure, he said, was the primary provision of an executive order which he signed on Sunday night.
“Outside the mall before opening (and) inside the mall during operations, no social distancing policy was found,” he said.
Remulla said supermarkets and drug stores inside the malls will also be closed until mall owners and managements are able to present concrete plans to ensure the effective implementation of social distancing rules.
Remulla likewise noted that workers outsmarted authorities by using their employee’s identification cards, issued by companies already allowed to operate under GCQ, even when they were not on duty.
There were also reports that some workers presented their company IDs to gain entry to the malls while their companions would use quarantine passes “so they could stroll together.”
Some, he added, also took out food orders from restaurants, which were located inside the malls, and ate these inside the mall or just outside the restaurants.
While he acknowledged that many of his constituents will “hate” him for the move, Remulla said he was willing to face his people’s wrath just to ensure that they remain safe from and are not exposed to the infectious virus.
“Sorry, the system has been abused and (we) need to tighten up,” said Remulla, adding: “Remember, Q in GCQ is ‘quarantine’. Disaster is not yet over.”
‘FAKE NEWS’
At the House of Representatives, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said social media photos and videos showing people violating social distancing in newly re-opened malls were all “fake news.”
Lopez told the House Defeat COVID-19 committee’s “new normal” cluster in a virtual hearing that the DTI went around last Sunday to monitor mall attendance and found out that only about 20 percent of the usual number of customers went to the malls.
“We made an inspection yesterday (Sunday) just for me to see and verify the various fake news coming out that there are so many people violating social distancing during the opening of malls. While we were interviewing, doing a quick survey, the crowd is only about 20 percent of what a typical Sunday afternoon (is), pre-COVID,” Lopez said. He did not say what shopping malls he and his staff “visited.”
“So those are just examples of what we saw. Again, there is no truth to all the fake news trying to discredit what the government has just decided [to slowly allow businesses to reopen] even partially (by) 50 percent, many of the stalls inside the malls,” he said.
Lopez said marshals were likewise deployed inside the malls to remind people to observe physical distancing and foot traffic rules.
The trade secretary even showed the congressmen several pictures showing low attendance in malls last Sunday.
QC HALL OF JUSTICE
The Quezon City Hall of Justice, which houses the city’s regional and metropolitan trial courts, was placed on a lockdown on Monday following a purported death of an employee allegedly due to COVID-19.
Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of QC-RTC Branch 89, said she ordered the lockdown upon the authority of Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez.
In ordering the lockdown, Burgos-Villavert cited reports that an employee who held office at the Hall of Justice recently died of severe pneumonia and suspected COVID-19. The reports also said that the unnamed staff went to the office “a few days before dying.”
“Considering that the instant matter still needs to be verified and, if true, contact tracing and building disinfection must be first undertaken, upon the authority given by the Hon. Jose Midas Marquez, Court Administrator, the Hall of Justice (Main and Annex) l, Quezon City, will be on lockdown beginning May 18,2020 until further notice,” said Burgos-Villavert.
Burgos-Villavert said entry of any person at the Hall of Justice “shall be disallowed during the said period.”
She said initiatory pleadings, in both civil and criminal cases, including criminal complaints, information and applications for bail, with the required documents, shall be electronically filed and received by the office of the clerks of court of the QC RTC or MTC, through their official email addresses.
”Pleadings and other court submissions in pending cases maybe electronically filed directly with the branch where the case is pending through the official email address of the concerned branch,” she also said.
SECOND WAVE
Año said a possible resurgence of COVID-19 infections is likely to happen if people continue to flock in malls, especially when current quarantine categories are further relaxed by the government.
“That’s true, we are actually apprehensive there is going to be another wave (of infection) because people tend to go outside,” he said, adding that the modified ECQ declared in Metro Manila has little difference from the previous ECQ.
“They don’t realize that MECQ is the same as ECQ, only we just allowed some businesses to open (under MECQ) but the restrictions to the people, they remain (in effect),” Año said, referring to the people who trooped to the streets and malls.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque reminded everyone that while there had been an easing of restrictions in most areas, the country remains to be under a lockdown due to COVID-19 threats.
“Modified enhanced community quarantine or general community quarantine, we are still under a community quarantine, the virus is still there. While there is still no vaccine, while there is still no medicinal cure, we are not yet safe from the COVID-19,” he said in Filipino.
Roque said with the surge of people over the weekend, the number of confirmed cases might increase as he warned that confirmed cases might even double and lead to a shortage of available beds and rooms to accommodate patients.
“After Saturday, I am sure there will be a sharp spike because of the disregard for social distancing and other health protocols. For the latest death figures, it was supposed to go down on a daily basis, but we should monitor that. Now that we are in a modified ECQ, and many are hard-headed, it will again increase,” he said.
Roque said at present, there are 13,457 available beds for COVID patients in Metro Manila, which include 9,468 beds in isolation facilities, 1,303 beds in intensive care units (ICUs) and 2,686 beds in hospital wards. He said there are also 1,963 available ventilators at present.
“If we all go out and disregard social distancing, we will go back to ECQ… and if the cases increase and we can no longer provide critical care to the patients, we would return to our cells, ECQ again!” he added.
Año said workers of essential establishments that were allowed to reopen were the only additions to the Authorized Persons Outside Residence under the MECQ.
He said he has asked local government and police officials to coordinate with mall officials for the strict enforcement of social distancing regulations inside and outside of the establishments.
Eleazar urged the public to resist the temptation of going to malls, saying that COVID-19 remains a threat to the country.
“We are reminding our countrymen that the government allowed the opening of the business establishments for our economy, not for us to stroll,” said Eleazar.
Eleazar, who visited a checkpoint at the boundary of Rizal and Metro Manila on Sunday, said some residents from Rizal, which is under GCQ, crossed Metro Manila just to buy garlic and other items that were also available in Rizal.
“If you are going to buy garlic, onions, tomatoes and other items that are available in your area, do not enter Metro Manila,” he said.
PNP Highway Patrol Group chief Brig. Gen. Eliseo Cruz said there was a sudden increase in the number of vehicles that entered Metro Manila. Cruz said policemen will just set up mobile checkpoints and do random checking of the vehicles to avoid traffic congestion.
“Their vehicles may not be checked in Quarantine Control Points but if my men found out that they are not allowed to go out or they are violating the physical distancing inside the vehicle during mobile checkpoint and random inspection, we will make sure that we will hold them accountable,” said Cruz. — With Wendell Vigilia, Jocelyn Montemayor and Ashzel Hachero
