Salceda: Over half million NCR households would go hungry if COVID alert raised

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LEGAZPI CITY — Over 600,000 families in the National Capital Region (NCR) would be displaced and would experience hunger if the alert level were raised again due to a spike of COVID-19 cases, according to Albay 2nd district representative Joey Salceda.

In a statement released on Tuesday, June 21, Salceda said he is very much against putting NCR again under lockdown status.

He said if restrictions were made, people’s movements would be significantly affected, leading to a poor economy.

“With the increase of prices in petroleum products and with the prices of basic commodities too, ‘nutrition crisis’ is likely to happen,” the economist and lawmaker stressed.

He said the move to raise the alert level system is nonsense and unnecessary nowadays, considering that COVID-19 is always around.

“What is most important is that people must deal with it and continue working for a better economy,” Salceda said.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier raised the possibility of hoisting Alert Level 2 in Metro Manila due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

READ: 4.8M Filipino families went hungry in last 3 months; 674K endured severe hunger — SWS

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