BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The appeal of Mayor Evelio Leonardia for a downgrade of the COVID alert level status from 4 to a possible 3 remains pending with the National Inter-agency Task Force on Emerging and Infectious Diseases, a City Hall executive said.
“We have not received any denial nor were we informed that it was accepted,” Em Ang told DNX.
Ang, former city administrator, is the executive director of the Emergency Operations Center of this urban center of more than half a million people in Negros Occidental province, the sugar-producing capital of the Philippines.
The appeal sent by Leonardia to the NIATF early this week came after it issued an Alert Level 4 for the city, the second highest level under the new alert protocol.
See story on what is Alert Level 4.
Leonardia, who is also chair of League of Cities of the Philippines, had already issued an executive order on the switch from the quarantine level system to the newer alert level one.
Ang said the new alert system is supposedly not appealable but data even from the health department’s Western Visayas office showed the city is qualified to be at alert level three, a rung lower from the Level 4 it hoisted over the city.
In fact, Health Regional director Adrian Subaan even endorsed Leonardia’s appeal, Ang added.
