I believe Cebu City will stay on ECQ

It is now the first day of July and we already learned that the Department of Health-7 would recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to place Cebu City under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) after June 30. This was the recommendation of DOH-7 spokesperson Mary Jean Loreche, the same recommendation they had before June 15. She said that it is also their recommendation that sequential lockdowns be implemented in barangays and sitios with high number of COVID-19 cases. Of course, this is the best scenario but is the IATF buying it now that we have a high number of cases? Spokesperson Loreche added that the DOH-7 believes the entire city should not be locked down so that the economy will have a chance to recover.

I also believe in this theory. However, we learned that as of June 29, the Philippines has logged 36,438 cases of novel coronavirus, along with a death toll of 1,255. If you looked into our fatality rate for a nation with more than a hundred million people, that is a very small figure. With the strict implementation of safety protocols like wearing of masks and social distancing, the IATF must now focus on reviving the economy. Meanwhile, we are still in ECQ. I heard many netizens who are obviously anti-Duterte questioning, for instance, why Sec. Roy Cimatu brought along the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) troopers with heavy arms and armored personnel when it is obvious to us that this invisible enemy cannot be stopped by guns. Clearly, they are just trying to ridicule President Duterte even if they know very well that the SAF is not here to fight COVID-19 but take over the barangay tanods who failed to secure their borders. If SAF got here on time, that procession in Alumnus, Barangay San Nicolas wouldn't have happened.

At this point, I would like to believe that despite the recommendations of DOH-7, Cebu City would stay in our ECQ level

for at least 15 days until July 15. But we must prepare for the shift to a GCQ, which still means we would still be in community quarantine.

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It seems that the Department of Tourism (DOT) released the results of the “Philippine Travel Survey: Insights on Filipino Travel Behavior Post-COVID 19” during a webinar on Monday. That report said that at least 77% of the respondents of a local online survey that seeks to define the “new normal” expressed their willingness to travel domestically even in the absence of a proven vaccine against COVID-19.

There is no question that a great majority of Filipinos are willing to travel within the country once restrictions are lifted.

The survey results also showed greater domestic confidence on the probability of domestic travel within six months from lifting

restrictions compared to international travel. Among the top destinations travelers said they would visit after the quarantine are Boracay, Siargao and Baguio. But don't get your hopes up too high as they would only travel after this pandemic is over. Now when is that?

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In our stay-at-home routine, we get all news and online talks from all over the world. The United States would have another presidential elections three months from now, and the untimely death of George Floyd created a massive anti-police protest rallies all over the US. Unfortunately, this was hijacked by the Anti-Fascist (Anti-Fa) groups that ended up with street violence, looting stores, burning cars and man handling police officers.

Then came the Black Lives Matter (BLM) groups headed by a Marxist person who wanted to eliminate history be destroying statues of famous people like US First President George Washington who he had slaves during that time. They ended up even defacing and toppling down of statues of people who supported the abolition of slaves.

They even tore down the Statue of St. Junipero Serra in San Francisco. the founder of California. Now they want to tear down the statues of Jesus Christ and Mama Mary because they are white. This is nothing new; the Bolsheviks did this in Russia when the Communists took over. Now they want to go on election via email. Know too well that electronic elections, like what happened to the Philippines, would not happen in America. No doubt America is turning to communism until the American people stop this nonsense.

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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@ mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com . His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.