Churches under the Archdiocese of Manila as well as all courts in the National Capital Region will suspend operations for two weeks starting today (Monday) in anticipation of a possible upgrade of lockdown protocols to Enhanced Community Quarantine.
The Supreme Court on Sunday ordered the shutdown of all courts in Metro Manila and other areas that may be placed under ECQ or Modified ECQ starting today to August 14 due to the spike in the number of COVID-19 infections.
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The affected courts may be reached through their respective hotline numbers, email addresses and/or Facebook accounts as posted on the website of the Supreme Court. The raffle of cases in all courts would likewise be conducted electronically or through videoconferencing.
Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta said the Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan, and Court of Tax Appeals would continue to receive petitions and pleadings electronically.
Night courts and Saturday courts shall also be suspended until August 14, the SC said.
No public religious activities
There will be no public religious activities in the Archdiocese of Manila starting today.
Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Manila Broderick Pabillo said all churches and shrines under the archdiocese are reverting to the protocols under ECQ as their response to the call of medical frontliners for a “timeout” amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
“All the churches and shrines in the Archdiocese of Manila will revert to the period of the ECQ protocols,” Pabillo said in a pastoral letter.
But he said online religious activities would continue.
“We will use this time to evaluate our church response to the pandemic and see how we can improve them,” Pabillo said.
Routines suspended
Camp Olivas, Pampanga—The daily operational routines of the Police Regional Office 3 were temporarily suspended from Aug. 1 to 4 to disinfect the main headquarters building after 18 policemen and a civilian employee tested positive for COVID-19 following a swab test over the weekend
Brig. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia, director of the Central Luzon PNP, ordered the policemen isolated and placed under quarantine while initiating contact-tracing to identify those who had associated with them in this regional police headquarters
"Camp Olivas is undergoing disinfection and it is a lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” said a police sergeant on duty at the main gate.
“All entry gates have been closed. Nobody is allowed to go in and out except for essential purposes."
Hazard pay
Senator Joel Villanueva has filed two bills seeking to grant hazard pay to essential personnel in the private and public sectors as a result of the risks they face during the pandemic.
He said street sweepers and garbage collectors were one of the “most vulnerable with low salaries and very little protection, and yet they continue to work to keep us safe at homes.”
Villanueva also filed a counterpart bill to cover government workers in critical industries, and it seeks to grant them hazard pay equivalent to 25 percent of their basic monthly salaries.
Those workers include those in the medical and allied health services, banks, morgues, groceries and public markets, pharmacies, restaurants, logistics, food and medical manufacturing, telecommunications, mass media, electricity generation, transmission and distribution, gasoline stations, oil companies, water distribution, sanitation, capital markets, hotels, public transport, civil aviation and other establishments that the government deems necessary to operate at the time of the emergency.
