Davao City eases curbs, but P500 fine for unmasked stays

BING GONZALES/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—As the city government eases its COVID-19 restrictions, an official reminds residents they have to wear their face masks at all times or pay the corresponding fine for violating a local ordinance.

In a statement, Angel Sumagaysay, head of the Public Safety and Security Command Center, said the local government had trained 226 personnel from different city offices to enforce Davao City Ordinance No. 0307-20 calling for the mandatory wearing of face masks in public places. Violators would be fined P500, he said.

The ordinance was passed in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sumagaysay said the deputized personnel would patrol city streets and check government offices to call the attention of violators and issue their corresponding citation tickets.

Liquor ban lifted

“We don’t even need to do this if the public were just compliant,” Sumagaysay said. “Let’s not wait for citation tickets to be issued before we complied with the ordinance. Let’s help our government.”

Mayor Sara Duterte earlier lifted the liquor ban, which marked the start of the city’s loosening up of its restrictions against COVID-19.

But Duterte continued to remind the public to continue wearing face masks and observe physical distancing and other basic health protocols to protect themselves from infection.

She said city officials had decided to ease the restrictions because of the need to revive the economy.

“We will be living with COVID-19,” Duterte said in a program streamed through her Facebook page on Monday.

“We cannot wait until [the city becomes] COVID-free, or [for] COVID-19 [to be totally eradicated before we start to loosen up] because we [do] not know whether COVID-19 will ever go away. It is very difficult to wait for that,” she added.

Other policies, such as the ban on the holding of government events, would also be lifted to ensure that the economy would slowly recover, the mayor said. —GERMELINA LACORTE

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