FOOD DELIVERY SPARKS CONTROVERSY
Food items are considered essential goods and their delivery should not be hindered, says presidential spokesman
AVIDEO clip of a local government official berating and apprehending a food delivery rider, over an order of lugaw or rice porridge, has triggered responses right up to Malacañang.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said delivery of food, like lugaw, are considered essential goods and should not be hindered, according to the Inquirer.net portal.
The video showed the food delivery rider stopped, while on his way sending lugaw to a customer, by a provincial local government officials in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan recently.
A lady official barred the delivery guy, supposedly because of the curfew, under the ongoing enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), and that lugaw was not considered essential goods.
“Lugaw, or any food item for that matter, is considered an essential good,” Roque said in a statement.
“Delivery of food items must remain unhampered. Don’t bar this on checkpoints,” he added.
Because of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal were placed under ECQ until April 4 in an attempt to contain the situation.
Similarly, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez also said that food deliveries were exempted from curfew hours.
“Very clear in ECQ guidelines on workers, APORs (authorised persons outside of residences) and deliveries,” he said.
Under the quarantine guidelines from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, “food preparation establishments such as commissaries, restaurants and eateries” are still allowed to operate but only “limited to take-out and delivery”.
Delivery and courier services, and other similar companies are also allowed to operate at full capacity.