Period to appeal quarantine status has ended, Palace tells Cebu City

Malacañang on Wednesday wondered why the Cebu City government is pushing for a reclassification of its community quarantine status even though the period for appeal has already lapsed.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said local government units had been informed by the government’s COVID-19 task force about their possible quarantine status to give way to appeals ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s announcement on Monday.

The task force resolved the appeals before it came up with a final recommendation to the President.

“Nagtataka po ako bakit ngayon lang nagsasabi na mag-aapela eh tapos na po ang period mag-appeal,” Roque said in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV. “Nabigyan na nga ng pagkakataon.”

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said they would ask the national government reconsider its decision to reimpose the strict enhanced community quarantine in the city, arguing that the recent increase in the number of COVID-19 infections was due to the delays in the validation of cases.

He also said the COVID-19 recovery rate is around 51%. Cebu City's ECQ status started on June 16 and will end on June 30.

Roque earlier said the re-imposition of the ECQ was the only way to curb the spread of the virus, which has infected over 3,000 people in one of the largest cities in the Philippines.

The task force cited the increasing number of new cases and widespread community transmission in the majority of barangays in the city.

It also cited the consistent case doubling time of less than seven days and significant increase in critical care utilization against critical care capacity.

Cebu City was previously under less stringent general community quarantine. —LBG, GMA News