MANILA, Philippines — Is President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. going to weigh in on whether Filipinos should still be required to wear face masks?
The Palace said the president is still weighing the issues surrounding a Cebu City executive order making the wearing of masks there voluntary. Speaking to Philippine media in Jakarta— where Marcos is set to meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo — Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said that Marcos is waiting for developments in an intervention by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
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The DILG said this week that Cebu City had agreed to defer implementation of the order, although Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama has said the executive order he signed is already in force. "We will wait first for further action on the part of the DILG and so all of that will be taken into consideration by the president," the press secretary said.
Speaking on "The Chiefs" on Cignal TV's One News on Friday, Dr. Maricar Limpin of the Philippine College of Physicians said that in the absence of a health secretary, "I think it is best that there is a statement coming from the president not to lift the face mask requirement yet."
Limpin has urged Marcos to publicly express support for the face mask mandate, saying such an appeal by the president would be convincing since he had contracted COVID-19 twice. Face masks should still be worn until the COVID-19 situation is fully controlled, she added.
READ: 'Small sacrifice': DOH says still too soon to abandon mask mandate
The Department of Health has said that having different protocols in different parts of the country would make managing the COVID-19 pandemic more difficult.
"Dadating tayo sa punto na maaari nang tanggalin ang mask kapag nasigurado na ng gobyerno na protektado ang mamamayang Pilipino ng mga bakunang binibigay natin sa komunidad," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, officer-in-charge of the DOH, said this week in response to Cebu City order.
(We will get to the point where masks can be removed when the government makes sure that the Filipino people are protected by the vaccines given to our community.)
Cruz-Angeles acknowledged that "[p]rimarily, this is a matter for the DOH, and it will be the DOH who primarily advises the president on health matters" but said that Marcos "will likewise listen to everybody."
Angeles said the interior department has asked Cebu City to defer its plan to lift the face mask mandate.
"I understand that the response has been that they will not defer. So we will wait first for further action on the part of the Department of the Interior. And so all of that will be taken into consideration by the president," the press secretary added.
Cebu City's Executive Order No. 5 signed by Mayor Michael Rama states that the wearing of face masks "should be individually taken by all citizens as a measure of self-preservation and protection under the principle of shared responsibility and mutual respect."
The order claimed that the current situation worldwide is indicative that the lethal effect of the pandemic is "already wearing off" and that vaccination has been proven to be an effective means in containing the spread and impact of COVID-19.
The Palace previously said that it "[respects] the mandate of local governments over their own jurisdictions" but that the president himself had yet to react to the Cebu City order.
The response was a far cry from the early days of the pandemic, when regulations released by the recommendatory Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had the strength of law, with then President Rodrigo Duterte even warning local governments of sanctions for failing to follow health protocols.
"We'll have to wait for a more definitive statement," Cruz-Angeles said on Sunday. — with reports from Alexis Romero