Isko on gov’t last-minute GCQ shift: ‘We have to endure this circus, shenanigans’

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno. INQUIRER.net file photo / RYAN LEAGOGO

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Wednesday did not mince his words when asked for his reaction to the national government’s last-minute retraction of general community quarantine (GCQ) status in the National Capital Region (NCR).

Domagoso expressed dismay at the government’s decision to keep the NCR’s modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status until September 15, deferring its decision to pilot granular lockdowns and easing Metro Manila’s status to GCQ.

“We really have to endure these shenanigans, itong perya, itong barbero, ‘yung barbershop, (this circus, the barber and his barbershop), we really have to endure,” he said in an ambush interview in Arroceros Urban Forest Park.

“Pinili natin yan, kaya magkaisa na lang,” he added. (We chose that so let’s just unite.)

Domagoso said he and all the mayors in Metro Manila Council were “shocked” by the The Inter-Agency Task Force’s (IATF) sudden decision to stick to MECQ.

He also said he could not blame some of the churches in Manila suspending the celebration of public masses.

“Pag pabago-bago di mo masisisi yung simbahan, nakita ko yung statement ng simbahan, sabi nila: Saka na lang kami magdedesisyon kapag nakapagdesisyon na kayo, o kung may direksyon na kayo,” Domagoso said.

(When the rules are always changing, you cannot blame the church. I saw their statements, where they said: We will decide to open once the government have decided, or has a direction.)

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JPV