TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The city government recently issued the rules and regulations for workers of establishments, from outside and from within the city, allowed to open during the implementation of the general community quarantine (GCQ).
Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero issued Executive Order No. 36, series of 2020, provided that Resolution No. 30, series of 2020, on the Omnibus guidelines on the GCQ implementation expressly states that the non-essential entry and exit of people to and from the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) zone will be prohibited, except for health workers, government officials and frontline personnel, travelling for medical or humanitarian reasons, persons on transit to the airport for travel broad, workers in permitted establishments and persons providing essential goods and services and public utilities, essential skeletal work force, repatriated Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and non-OFWs returning to their residences and persons transported through efforts of the national government upon the conduct of the necessary quarantine protocols and in concurrence with the receiving local government units.
He added that land and air travel shall be allowed for uniformed personnel and government officials and employees for official business with the corresponding travel authority, especially those transporting medical supplies and laboratory specimens related to the Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 and other relief and humanitarian assistance.
Further, barangays and local health units shall not issue orders contrary to or inconsistent with the prevailing guidelines such as, but not limited to, requiring asymptomatic drivers and crew of cargo or service delivery vehicles to undergo mandatory 14-day home quarantine.
The city chief executive asserted that strict social distancing measures must be observed which may include, if necessary, the putting up of additional safe and humane seats or spaces in vehicles, while all order border checkpoints in the city shall adhere to the aforesaid guidelines and allow entry of the residents of nearby municipalities and cities who are working in the city, after presenting proof of employment and health declaration forms where the same workers are exempted from undergoing the required 14-day quarantine.
For workers who are residents of the city, Estrañero explained they need to present a valid identification car or certificate of employment duly received and validated by the city legal office at the checkpoints.
According to him, the downgrading of the status of Kalinga, including the component city of Tabuk, to GCQ does not mean that the situation will go back to normal but to a new normal with the implementation of physical distancing policies and the mandatory wearing of face masks at all times.
Tabuk City is one of the places in the Cordillera that remains COVID-free since the ECQ and even after the downgrading of its status to GCQ following the implementation of stringent rules and regulations that have been crafted to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus in the city.
By Hent