- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The curfew in Bacolod City has been lifted, more than two years after the restriction was first enforced due to the coronavirus disease pandemic.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia, in Executive Order 25, signed May 24 and released Wednesday, said the lifting of the curfew hours, from 12 midnight to 4 a.m., is in line with the city’s desire to accelerate moves towards economic recovery.
“In line with its recovery plans, the city is now taking steps to further revitalize business activities and promote consumer spending…and finds it imperative that the movements of people during the new normal should be eased and be made less constricted,” the EO added.
Bacolod is one of the 39 local government units that belong to the first batch of cities, towns, and provinces, out of about 2,000 LGUs throughout the country, initially de-escalated to Alert Level 1 by the National Inter-Agency Task Force in March this year.
The NIATF said Bacolod’s inclusion was primarily due to its very high vaccination rate and continued consistent decline of COVID-19 infections, adding that these were indicators that the LGU had managed the pandemic well.
Leonardia said that COVID-19 cases in Bacolod have gone down and remained low since February this year.
“All these accomplishments were primarily because of the cooperation of all stakeholders, the Bacolodnons from all walks,” he said in a press statement.
“If we were in school, Bacolod would have been a class valedictorian or one with top honors in class, considering that it is among the first batch of LGUs, out of about 2,000, placed under Alert Level 1 by the national government,” he added.
The curfew in Bacolod was first imposed in March 2020 after the national government declared a State of Public Health Emergency nationwide due to COVID-19, with the country placed on lockdown and only those with home quarantine passes allowed to go out and buy necessities for a limited period of time.
Section 5 of City Ordinance No. 937, series of 2020, as amended by C.O. 947, series of 2020, granted the city mayor the emergency authority to issue executive orders, directives, and advisories providing for strategies and instituting programs that will halt or mitigate the transmission, and cushion the impact, of COVID-19 in Bacolod.
As such, Leonardia’s subsequent EOs on the duration of the curfew hours had been dependent on the number of COVID infection, like the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. restriction that took effect in August 2020 when the first wave of the virus was experienced.
The mayor also suspended the curfew imposition on Dec. 24, 25, and 31 last year, in consideration of the Christmas season that Filipinos look upon as a period for family bonding and social interaction./CGC
