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Palace backs cancellation of quarantine passes in Cebu City

By VIRGIL LOPEZ,GMA News

Malacañang on Wednesday supported the cancellation of quarantine passes in Cebu City, which has been placed on lockdown amid an upward trend in COVID-19 infections.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the cancellation was a “good move,” noting that the 250,000 quarantine passes that had been issued were “too many” for a city with 900,000 residents.

“The point being made is just it’s too many, it’s a quarter of the residents of the entire city that’s allowed to go out. That defeats the purpose of course of an ECQ [enhanced community quarantine],” he told ANC.

“I suppose they’ll have to issue new ones to ensure that only one from every household will get a quarantine pass to get the essentials,” Roque said.

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Roque also said Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who was designated by President Rodrigo Duterte to oversee government efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Cebu City, can tap the military to enforce quarantine protocols.

"This is not martial law. This has been decided upon by the Supreme Court and this is as far as enforcing the ECQ in Cebu is concerned," the Palace official said.

"Normally, we have the police enforcing it, but if the police are not enough then the Armed Forces can also enforce the lockdown.”

As of Tuesday, Cebu City had 4,160 COVID cases, with 65 deaths and 316 recoveries, according to the Department of Health. -NB, GMA News