Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III believes placing NCR Plus under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) in June would further boost the economy.
“Mas maganda nga kung maging MGCQ na para lumago ang negosyo. Gagalaw ang ekonomiya. Kapag nangyari ‘yan, gaganda rin ang employment kaya ‘yan ang hinihintay namin,” Bello said in an interview on Unang Balita.
(It would be better if NCR Plus would shift to MGCQ to help businesses and the economy. If that happens, employment will also improve. That’s what we are waiting for.)
NCR Plus, which covers Metro Manila and the adjacent provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna, is currently on general community quarantine (GCQ) “with heightened restrictions.”
The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the government’s policy-making in COVID-19 response, will meet on Monday to discuss NCR Plus’ quarantine classification for next month.
Last week, the OCTA Research group said that general community quarantine (GCQ) imposed in NCR Plus should remain until June.
Placing NCR Plus under MGCQ will boost economy – Bello
“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.
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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