Task force to draft rules for Cebu’s ‘new normal’ post-quarantine

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said on Wednesday, April 29, she will create a task force to study and draft safety protocols and economic policies that the province should adapt when the enhanced community quarantine is lifted in the province on May 15. 

Garcia is expected to sign an executive order to create Task Force New Normal, which she will lead as chairman. “Do not expect that we will just go back to what we were used to before the pandemic. The comforts of the past are gone,” Garcia said in Cebuano. 

Garcia said the coronavirus pandemic underscored the need to boost agricultural production in Cebu, which largely relies on imports. She earlier challenged local businessmen to shift their priorities into the development of arable land in the countryside. 

“As early as now, I will say we will focus on agricultural production. We will focus on the countryside, on our cities and towns, where there land that can be made agriculturally productive,” Garcia said.

The task force will gather representatives of business chambers, travel industry, and government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), she said.

“Let’s accept that our lives have changed. Let us define the new normal so we can adapt. Our world has changed, so has our province, and so has our lives,” she added. – Rappler.com