Mayors eye cancellation of Christmas parties

MANILA, Philippines — Mayors in the National Capital Region are eyeing to cancel Christmas parties in local government offices for this year as the country and the world continue to fight the coronavirus disease pandemic, the Metro Manila Council (MMC) chairman said.

MMC chairman and Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez said over dzMM yesterday that mayors could issue directives against holding Christmas parties this year as these are considered mass gatherings prohibited under any community quarantine status.

“All of us may issue a memorandum telling our departments to prevent (Christmas parties) because gatherings are not allowed. Under the guidelines of the inter-agency task force, we could not have any gathering… That is not a priority, because there is still a pandemic,” Olivarez said in Filipino.

Malacañang meanwhile said yesterday that it is not impossible for Metro Manila to shift to the most lenient quarantine status in November citing the downward trend in the number of new daily cases in the capital region.

Businesses have been calling for the easing of quarantine measures in Metro Manila, which has more than 163,000 infections or more than half of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines.

Downgrading Metro Manila to the most lenient modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) from general community quarantine (GCQ) would allow enterprises to recover their losses and contribute to economic recovery, business groups said.

The government’s pandemic task force, however, decided to keep Metro Manila under GCQ for the entire month of October since the region is still considered a medium risk area.

Under GCQ, most businesses can operate partially but public gatherings remain restricted.

“It (Metro Manila shifting to MGCQ) is not an impossibility because we were able to bring it (number of new cases) down,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said at a press briefing.