Local execs must align pandemic policies with Duterte’s directives — Guevarra

Local government units must craft policies to curb the spread of COVID-19 that are aligned with the President’s directives, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Tuesday.

Guevarra said the resolutions passed by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) were legally binding because they were adopted by the President through executive orders.

“As such, these IATF resolutions apply with equal force in every nook and cranny of our country. The IATF is a creation of the President; it is therefore a qualified political agency of the President. Its actions are the actions of the President, unless reprobated by the latter,” he said.

“Therefore, all local government officials, who are constitutionally under the supervision of the President, must align their policies, resolutions, and ordinances in accordance with the directives of the chief executive. Otherwise, there will be chaos and disorder in our society.”

Guevarra issued the statement amid conflict between the IATF and the Cebu provincial government over testing and quarantine protocols for returning overseas Filipinos and overseas Filipino workers.

Cebu’s provincial ordinance on testing and quarantine protocols calls for returning overseas Filipinos and OFWs to go through swab testing for COVID-19 upon arrival at the airport.

Following a negative test result, the traveler would be allowed to go into home quarantine, with testing to be conducted on the seventh day from the arrival.

Under the IATF-approved protocols, these individuals must undergo a facility-based quarantine for 10 days, with the remainder to be completed under home quarantine in their respective local government units of destination.

They must also take an RT-PCR test on the seventh day of quarantine.

On Monday, two Cebu-based lawyers urged a trial court to declare the IATF protocol inapplicable in their province.

Petitioners Clarence Paul Oaminal and Valentino Bacalso Jr. argued that ordinances enjoy the presumption of validity.

They said the Cebu governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan have the inherent authority to respond to and protect the people of Cebu from a public health emergency.

The petition also said the IATF failed to properly consult the local authorities.

“The filing of a case by the Cebu lawyers is most welcome. It provides a judicial forum for the settlement of an important legal issue that may crop up again in the future,” Guevarra said when asked for comment on the petition.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night warned he would not follow court orders as regards quarantine protocols, adding the pandemic response was of national interest.

“I respect the judiciary and I can assure them that we will follow the orders,”  Duterte said in his weekly Talk To The People on COVID-19 response.

“But at this time of a national emergency, I would just like to inform the courts that I will not follow them. I will insist on what is necessary to protect the people.”

Duterte also left the fate of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, a political ally, to the Department of the Interior and Local Government. — RSJ, GMA News