MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sonny Angara on Thursday backed another extension of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine until the middle of May, as he believes that President Rodrigo Duterte will go for a lockdown beyond April 30.
In a teleconference with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), Angara said local government units should be allowed a gradual easing of restrictions towards the total lifting of the strict quarantine.
“This is my fearless…forecast: The President will, kind of, still extend it until the middle of May. That’s what I’ve been hearing. He might relax a few things but I think, on the whole, the quarantine will stay…and I would support that decision, too,” he said.
According to the Angara, it would be “too late” to announce any relaxation or lifting of the quarantine with only a week before April 30.
“At this stage, I would support the extension to like May 10 or May 15 because I feel it’s too late really to announce that there will be lifting because I don’t think there’s enough time to prepare on the ground,” Angara said.
Local government units, he added, need to be made ready for an eventual lifting of the quarantine so that they could prepare for the changes that would be enforced by the national government with regards to quarantine measures.
“I’ve seen from experience of our last five weeks, there has to be some gestation time for policies to kind of processed and for local government officials to be informed to know the correct protocol and dapat may practice muna (practice must be first be done),” the senator said.
“Kumbaga bago lumaro ng basketball mag-practice muna tayo (Before playing basketball, we need to practice),” he said.
Duterte earlier placed the entire Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continued to increase.
The quarantine became effective on March 17 and was initially set to be lifted on April 13. But Duterte extended the Luzon lockdown until April 30.
As of posting, Duterte has yet to issue a decision on whether to lift, extend, or modify the enhanced community quarantine.
To date, there are 6,981 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, including 722 recoveries and 462 fatalities.