Malacañang defends its decision to place Cebu City under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).
The palace on Thursday, July 16, 2020, said that government officials observed improvements in the Covid situation in the Queen City of the South, hence, the downgrading of the quarantine status from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to MECQ where a strict lockdown was implemented for a month.
President Duterte placed Cebu City under MECQ, based on the recommendation of deputies, according to presidential spokesman Harry Roque.
“As far as the classification of Cebu is concerned we actually gave premium to the recommendation of [Environment] Secretary [Roy] Cimatu as well as the chief implementers Secretary [Carlito] Galvez and Secretary [Eduardo] Año,” Roque said in a CNN-Philippines interview.
The presidential spokesman said that while the number of cases and critical care capacity has improved, the President deemed it best to place Cebu City under MECQ instead of a less stringent community quarantine status because no one knows when “the trend will hold”.