By Joseph B.A. Marzan
Iloilo City’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) task force spokesperson on Wednesday said that the city government is considering legal remedies to prevent people from crowding during the traditional nine-day Christmas ‘Simbang Gabi’ masses, which started Wednesday morning.
Under the omnibus guidelines of the national Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), religious gatherings can be held if the venue is only at 50 percent capacity.
The IATF-MEID has placed Iloilo City under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) area since October, hence the restrictions.
The city government’s compliance officers, barangay officials, police officers, and volunteers had been deployed to monitor compliance to minimum health standards according to COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Jeck Conlu.
Conlu’s initial assessment of the first morning Christmas masses in the city were “peaceful”, he said in a radio interview.
He expressed the city’s concerns over the spillover of persons into roads and plazas, particularly in La Paz and Molo churches.
He said the city government may issue an executive order or pass an ordinance so they may avoid any untoward vehicular accident.
Conlu, however, admitted that the latter would be impossible since the City Council already held their last session of the year last Dec. 10.
“We are looking at maybe asking for an Executive Order or a Resolution or an Ordinance, but the problem is that [the City Council] will not be holding more sessions [for 2020], so I will have to check with [the City Legal Office] on what could be the remedies, because it’s a bit difficult with vehicles passing these roads,” Conlu told Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo.
He also shared the concern with attendees outside the churches who do not observe the one-meter social distancing rule.
But he said they can allow family members to attend together, so long as they “do not stick close to each other”.
Conlu also observed that most attendees preferred to stay outside due to the ventilation and better observance of physical distancing.
He also said that they were giving consideration to children below 15 years to attend the masses, citing tradition.
The IATF-MEID’s guidelines provide that those below 15 years old should remain in their homes to lessen risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Conlu said he will continue to do an initial assessment of the Simbang Gabi.
