Pateros mayor wants Alert Level 3 to remain until end of November

MANILA, Philippines — Pateros Mayor Miguel Ponce III on Wednesday said he wanted the Alert Level 3 in Metro Manila to remain until the end of November.

Currently, the National Capital Region is under Alert Level 3 until November 14.

Despite the appeal of the business sector to ease restrictions due to declining COVID-19 cases, Ponce said retaining the current status would be beneficial for the public.

“Actually, sa tingin ko nagluluwag naman tayo nang kaunti ano kasi ina-adjust natin ito. Nagkakaroon tayo ng mga kombinasyon na ina-apply natin,” he explained during the Laging Handa briefing.

(Actually, I think we have loosen restrictions a bit because we are adjusting it. We applied combinations [of rules].)

“Baka mas magandang nasa Level 3 pa rin tayo ano bagama’t magkakaroon nang konting pagluluwag pa. Dahil ang sa akin, kung ako ang tatanungin ninyo, mas gusto kong dahan-dahan kaysa naman biglain natin ito at magkaroon na naman ng problema,” Ponce added.

(Maybe it is better to remain under Level 3 because there is a bit of loosening of limitations. For me, if you will ask me, I want to relax the restrictions gradually instead of suddenly which may lead to problems.)

The Department of Health earlier said that there is a possibility to downgrade the alert level to 2 as infections decrease. This was also backed by independent team Octa Research.