COVID-19

Duterte orders Duque to ‘critique’ Cebu’s modified quarantine rules for OFWs

Ryan Macasero

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Duterte orders Duque to ‘critique’ Cebu’s modified quarantine rules for OFWs

MEETING. Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia meets with President Rodrigo Duterte and cabinet members on Monday, May 31.

Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas

(1st UPDATE) While President Duterte has asked his health chief to assess Cebu's rules, he also 'stressed that national policies must be followed by everyone,' says Malacañang

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to “critique” Cebu’s modified quarantine protocols for returning residents which are more relaxed than the guidelines set by the government’s COVID-19 task force.”

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement posted on Facebook on Monday night, May 31, that the President gave the directive after Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia presented to the President “the rationale for Cebu’s arrival protocols” for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and returning Filipinos (RFs).

“President Duterte asked Secretary Duque to critique until this Thursday these innovations. Meanwhile, President Duterte stressed that national policies must be followed by everyone,” he added.

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Garcia and other Cebu officials met with Duterte on Monday night to make a case for Cebu’s more relaxed protocols for OFWs and RFs. In Cebu, OFWs and RFs are only required two to three days of hotel quarantine, with swabbing upon arrival instead of the mandated 10-day quarantine and swabbing on the seventh day from arrival.

The meeting was held after Duterte ordered all international flights diverted to Manila from May 29 to June 5, with little explanation on why this was done.

Although the memorandum ordering the flight diversion did not mention Garcia’s less strict quarantine protocols, it emphasized that testing and quarantine procedures should be uniform at all ports of entry.

Roque previously said that rerouting flights from Cebu to Metro Manila was due to full capacity of quarantine hotels on the island. An association of Cebu hotel owners, however, told Rappler that this was not the case.

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In justifying the shorter quarantine period, Garcia said that Cebu has its COVID-19 cases under control, and that applying the Inter-Agency Task Force’s mandatory 10-day quarantine would be unfair.

“While all LGUs must follow national policies, we need to answer why Cebu has been on MGCQ (modified general community quarantine) for 10 straight months. This has never happened in Metro Manila,” Roque said. 

Garcia also believes a longer quarantine period would put unnecessary added financial strain on OFWs and other returning residents. 

In a press conference with Cebu media on June 1, Garcia said the status of her Executive Order No. 17, which created Cebu’s custom protocols, will depend on Duque’s findings on Thursday.

“I do not want to be those that I have recently criticized – that they come up with policies that severely burden people because they have based all of this on their presumptions and speculations,” she said when asked about what system of testing and quarantine will be implemented after June 5.

Garcia also said Duque initially expressed that he had “made up his mind” on the whole-of-nation approach to testing and quarantine of Filipinos from abroad should be followed by every LGU.

“In the end the President advised Secretary Duque to study our procedure here and see if this could possibly be a good way or innovation that could be adopted. Secretary Duque at first said that, ‘Ah, yes we will discuss this but… our minds are made up,’ so the President had to repeat,” said Garcia.

In an attempt to allay concerns raised by some secretaries of other LGUs following suit with establishing their own protocols, Garcia reportedly highlighted in the meeting the importance of studying procedures that have worked for others.

“If you see something working, wouldn’t it be worth it to study it? And perhaps find out why it’s working and see if this perhaps be applied to other regions?” she said.

The Cebu governor previously said that her guidelines did not contradict national policies on returning residents but only “innovated” existing IATF rules on testing and quarantine. 

As of Monday, May 31, Cebu reported 17 new cases for a total of 15,562 cases, of which 442 are active. At least 727 people have died in Cebu from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. – with a report from Lorraine Ecarma/Rappler.com

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Nobuhiko Matsunaka

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Ryan Macasero

Ryan covers social welfare for Rappler. He started at Rappler as social media producer in 2013, and later took on various roles for the company: editor for the #BalikBayan section, correspondent in Cebu, and general assignments reporter in the Visayas region. He graduated from California State University, East Bay, with a degree in international studies and a minor in political science. Outside of work, Ryan performs spoken word poetry and loves attending local music gigs. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmacasero or drop him leads for stories at ryan.macasero@rappler.com