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HomeCOVID-19What's in an E.O.: Bing signs directive placing Bacolod under MGCQ

What’s in an E.O.: Bing signs directive placing Bacolod under MGCQ

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BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Bacolod Mayor City Evelio Leonardia has signed Executive Order 38, s. 2020 effectively placing the city under Modified General Community Quarantine.

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The following are the guidelines set under the E.O.

Movement of people, and curfew hours

All persons are now allowed to go outside of their residences.  However, persons below 21 years old, as well as senior citizens and vulnerable sectors like those with comorbid  or immunocompromised conditions are urged to be inside their residences.

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A daily curfew will still be in place.  According to Councilor Archie Baribar, the city council has passed a resolution identifying the “non-social period” from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. which is “applicable to all”.

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Exceptions, he said, would be emergency response teams like firefighters, keepers of peace and order, establishments that are allowed to open 24 hours, BPO employees going to and from work, security guards, and public officials.   

Industries and operational capacities

Category I industries are under maximum operational capacity.  These include power, energy,  water,  and  other  utilities,  agriculture, fishery, and forestry industries, food  manufacturing  and  food  supply  chain businesses,  including  food  retail  establishments  such  as  supermarkets,  grocery stores,  and  food  preparation  establishments  insofar  as  take-out  and  delivery services,  food  delivery   services,   health-related   establishments,   the   logistics sector,  information  technology  and  telecommunication  companies,   the  media,   at full operational capacity;

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Category II Industries are also under maximum operational capacity.  This includes mining and other manufacturing, and electronic commerce companies, as well as other delivery, repair and  maintenance,  and housing and office services.

Category  III  industries like financial    services,   legal  and  accounting,   and  auditing services, professional, scientific, technical, and  other  non-leisure  services,  and other non-leisure wholesale and retail establishments (wholesale and retail trade of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles, including their parts and components; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and bicycles,  battery repair shops,

auto repair shops, hardware stores, bookstores and school and office supplies stores, baby care supplies stores; pet food and pet care supplies;  communications, and electronic equipment; flower, jewelry, novelty, antique, perfume shops;  and other non-Leisure businesses that may be allowed to operate at full operational capacity.

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Category IV industries like amusement, gaming, and fitness establishments, as well as those in the kids’  and  the tourism industries, libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural centers and zoological gardens, travel agencies, and tour operators and similar establishments, gambling and betting, as well as other amusement and leisure and gaming establishments may operate but at a maximum operational and/or seating capacity of 50 percent.

However, barber shops, salons, and other personal care service establishments shall be allowed to operate at a maximum of 50% venue capacity. Dine-in service in food retail establishments such  as  supermarkets,  grocery stores, and food preparation establishments shall be allowed  provided  that  the  seating  capacity  may  not exceed 50%.

Massage parlors and sauna baths are still prohibited until further advice.

Work in all departments of the City Government of Bacolod including those of national agencies/instrumentalities are allowed to resume physical reporting at full operating capacity, with alternative work arrangements for persons who are sixty (60) years old and above, or those with ages between 18 and 21 years old, those with immunodeficiency, comorbidity, or other health risks, and pregnant women.

Public transportation

“Strict restrictions” are imposed on public transportation within Bacolod City limits and those entering the territorial jurisdiction of Bacolod City .

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Masks should be worn at all times by both driver and passenger, as well as strict observance of social distancing, otherwise violators of these rules will not be allowed to operate.

The passengers must be seated in a space of two-passengers apart horizontally with marks drawn on the seat specifying where the passengers are to sit on.

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For taxi cabs or automobile PUVs, only two passengers shall be allowed to be transported on the back seat and one passenger at the front seat.

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For tricycles PUVs, only one passenger shall he seated at the front of the sidecar.  Riding behind the driver is not allowed.

The odd-even scheme for out-of-town vehicles is suspended until further notice.

Hiring of transportation by private establishments

Business establishments permitted to operate during the MGCQ are urged to provide a means of transportation to their workers convenient to the schedule and point of origin and destination. This provision covers “For Hire” vehicles contracted by business establishments like the BPOs, of their in-house vehicles in mass transporting their workers.

Malls and shopping centers

Malls and shopping centers in the city are now allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity.  This would include the establishments operating inside (except for barbershops, salons, and dine-in food services, as well as industries under Category IV which are allowed to operate but at only 50 percent seating/venue capacity).

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Malls are also required to strictly follow precautionary measures, including limiting the number of people inside the malls, limiting the number of entrances to minimize foot traffic and control crowds, ensure social distancing in all areas, make temperature checks entering premises, impose a “no mask, no entry” policy,

Provide disinfectants for customers for free, regulate air conditioning, turn off free wifi, assign a centralized pickup location for stores with delivery/pickup services, suspensions of mall events to avoid attracting crowds, and implement other measures that they might find necessary.

Businesses engaged in essential goods and services such as supermarkets, wet markets, stores, and other retail establishments, veterinary supply stores, agri-fishery stores, drugs stores and pharmacies are encouraged to extend their dally store operations to a maximum of 12 hours convenient to both the customers and the proprietors.

Schools and the education sector

Residential or face-to-face classes shall be subject to the policy of the Department of Education.  The opening of classes for basic education shall be on 24 August, 2020 and shall end 30 April 2021. 

Opening of private schools will be allowed within the period provided by law provided that school learning continuity plan shall be submitted.  No face-to-face classes will be allowed earlier than 24, August 2020.

Adoption of various learning delivery options such face-to-face, blended learnings, distance learnings, and homeschooling end other modes of delivery shall be Implemented depending on the local COVID Risk Severity Classification and compliance with minimum health standards.

Conduct of curricular and co-curricular activities involving gatherings such as fair, school sports, campus journalism, festivals and the like remain canceled.

For the HEIs, the rolling opening of classes will be based on education delivery mode with compliance to minimum public health standards, consultation with LGUs, and the situation on the ground.

Online education can be open anytime, while using flexible learning can open anytime in August 2020.  The use of significant residential [face-to-face/in-person) mode can open on or before 1 September, 2020; no residential (face-to-face/in-person) classes until August 32, 2020.

Sports, and public gatherings

For sports and exercises, including non-contact sports such as golf, tennis, table tennis, swimming, etc., these are allowed provided that minimum public health standards shall be strictly enforced.

Public gatherings such as but not limited to, movie screenings, concerts, sporting events, and other entertainment activities, community assemblies, religious gatherings, and non-essential work gatherings shall be allowed provided that participants  shall  be limited to 50 percent of the venue or seating capacity.

Movement of cargo

The movement of all types of cargoes by land, air, or sea remains unhampered, provided that only a maximum of five personnel may operate cargo and delivery vehicles by land.

Bacolod City also accepts the unhampered entry the following, provided that employment IDs and other documents are presented: land-based travelers from any town of city of Negros Occidental, including officials of the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental, pre-arranged arrivals at Bacolod seaports of returning residents of Negros Occidental and Bacolod City who had been stranded in Panay island,

pre-arranged departures from Bacolod seaports of returning residents of Panay Island who had been stranded In Bacolod City or Negros Occidental subject to pre-boarding documents to be imposed by the Iloilo City government; anyone leaving Bacolod seaports to report for work in businesses permitted to operate in Panay Island and coming back home; anyone arriving at Bacolod seaports from Panay Island to report for work in businesses permitted to operate in Bacolod City or any town of city in Negros Occidental and going back home;

pre-arranged arrivals of repatriated OFWs or other returning stranded Bacolod or Negros Occidental residents by sea or by air from other places outside of Region 6; health and emergency frontliners, government officials, uniformed personnel, government frontline personnel, and government employees for official business with the correspondent travel authority;

duly-authorized humanitarian assistance actors; persons traveling for medical or humanitarian reasons;

persons going to the airport for travel abroad,  and other persons transported through the efforts of the national government upon observance of the necessary quarantine protocols and with the concurrence of the receiving LGUs;

repatriated OFWs or returning stranded residents coming from outside of Region 6 who have been issued a DOH or fellow-LGU certificate of completion of 14-day facility-based quarantine or those who are issued with travel authority upon testing negative for COVID-19 (RT-PCR method) provided they comply anew with the health protocols imposed by the city government.

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Hannah A. Papasin
Hannah A. Papasinhttp://facebook.com/hannah.mariveles
Writer. Critic. Professor. She started writing since primary school and now has two published textbooks on communication. A film buff, she's a Communication, Media Literacy and Journalism Professor of the University of St. La Salle-Bacolod, and has a Master's Degree in English.
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