The mayors of Metro Manila proposed the further easing of restrictions in NCR Plus days before general community quarantine (GCQ) ends on May 31.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairperson Benjamin Abalos Jr. told Unang Balita that the Metro Manila Council met on Wednesday night. The mayors decided to recommend to the national government to allow more establishments to open in increased capacity.
“Ang napag-usapan po kagabi ay to open more businesses or activities at kung puwede ay lakihan ang capacity ng mga activities, ng mga negosyo [What was discussed last night was to open more businesses and activities and, if possible, to increase the capacity in these activities and businesses],” he said.
“We will always be guided by the IATF,” Abalos added.
The OCTA Research group said Wednesday that general community quarantine (GCQ) being imposed in NCR Plus should remain until June.
“While we believe that we can relax restrictions, we think that we should try to retain the GCQ at this time because the cases are still significant,” David said in an online forum.
Metro Manila mayors recommend easing restrictions
NCR Plus is under “GCQ with heightened restrictions” until the end of the month.
David said some of the “heightened restrictions” could be eased to allow more businesses to open and operate at a higher capacity.
The experts added it is too early to ease restrictions in NCR Plus to modified GCQ.
“In fact, back in February, we were at 400 cases [in Metro Manila] per day, but we were still in GCQ, so it doesn’t seem to be the time to relax to MGCQ at this time. It also gives us the wrong messaging to the people,” David said.
“We want to avoid situations where people become very complacent because they feel that the situation has improved significantly, that there are no more cases, when in fact there are still cases,” he added.
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