Lopez backs MGCQ for whole country
Of course! I agree and support
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez disclosed on Tuesday his full support on the proposal for the implementation of a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) measure in the whole country.
“Of course! I agree and support it,” he stressed.
“I have mentioned before that it will depend on the Covid stats. But as we see the Covid cases generally going down even with gradual and calibrated reopening of economy, we should continue the gradual and safe reopening of sectors, and further relaxation to MGCQ, with very localized lockdown where needed, so we can open the other parts of the economy and bring back more jobs for our kababayans,” Lopez said.
He maintained that the government economic team’s proposal remains viable, as long as Filipinos will continue adhering to safety protocols, which he said that the Filipinos have been used to since last year.
“It is about time we move to MGCQ after a year of lockdown. Lockdown was supposed to buy us time to prepare our health system and improve contact tracing and trace test treat,” he said. “Again, as long as there is ‘full compliance’ to mask and shield, distancing (avoiding crowd), frequent sanitation and good ventilation, people are protected, regardless of age and community quarantine,” Lopez stressed. On Monday, acting National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) chief Karl Chua has urged President Rodrigo Duterte to place the entire country under the lowest form of community quarantine beginning 1 March, citing the country’s need to recover from huge economic losses. According to NEDA, as the country recovers, Metro Manila has a very weak recovery — worse in employment and hunger recovery, which means more urban poor. “The damage to malnutrition and other health and social issues will be irreversible,” Lopez noted.