Media practitioners will no longer be allowed to attend Palace briefings as part of a lockdown at the Malacañang complex to protect the government’s seat of power from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) said Friday.
Presidential Security Group (PSG) chief Col. Jesus Durante III said the lockdown at the palace would begin Saturday, March 28.
“I require all PSG personnel to go on self quarantine effective 28 March. No PSG personnel to go out of Malacañang complex until April 10,” Durante said.
He said Office of the President (OP) personnel will maintain a skeletal workforce and would be allowed to go to their respective offices within Malacañang complex subject to regular screening procedures.
The PSG said work inside Malacañang will continue despite the lockdown.
The lockdown of the Palace complex to visitors comes after a lawmaker who attended a Palace meeting intially tested positive for COVID-19.”©”©
Meanwhile, the PCOO said only resource speakers, Radio TV Malacañang cameramen and a moderator from the agency’s Office of Global Media and Public Affairs are allowed on the premises starting Thursday.
The PCOO encouraged media to participate through virtual press conferences or by submitting questions either to the moderator or the resource speaker.
PCOO said a list of resource persons would be given to media personnel in advance.
“Media companies are encouraged to hook up to PTV to air the public address on their respective channels. The restriction is meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),” it added.
Also on Friday, the official in charge of the government’s 100-day action plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic said the Luzon-wide lockdown would be assessed to determine if it flattened the curve on new infections by April 14.
“We will check if the lockdown can already be lifted by April 14,” said presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., who has been designated by the President as the chief implementer of the national action plan to battle the pandemic.
“Normally, your plan of action is for a 30-day lockdown. Before the end of the lockdown, you will evaluate if we could ease up a bit if all the carriers have been contained and put in isolation treatment facilities,” he said.
Galvez said the 100-day action plan does not mean the lockdown will last for the same period.
“The second month, we call it sustained monitoring and intensive health care of patients, and then next is normalcy” he added.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said there was no truth in reports circulating online that the country will be under the control of the military starting next week.
“There will be no military control and extension of enhanced community quarantine in Luzon. It will end on April 12,” Nograles said in a radio interview.
“I want to clarify that the rumors are fake news. To all, do not believe unverified information,” Nograles said.
Nograles warned those spreading fake news that they will be jailed, saying the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), will go after people behind the fake news.
The Cabinet secretary also debunked reports that public markets like Divisoria and other public markets at the National Capital Region will closed.
“I just want to clarify that all of these are fake news,” he said.
Rumors spread rapidly online after President Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon under the enhanced community quarantine to stop the spread of COVID-19 on March 15.
Nograles said fake news continues to circulate on the social media as the government is doing its best to address COVID-19 outbreak before the quarantine ends on April 12.
“We want to immediately address this COVID-19 pandemic. We want to end this health crisis but we need the cooperation of everyone,” he said.
He said all official announcements would only come from President Rodrigo Duterte, the Department of Health, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
The Palace official appealed to the public to only believe all the information from IATF, the Department of Health, and President Duterte.
At the same time, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo defended the President’s move to give former military officials a key role in the fight against COVID-19.
Panelo said tapping retired military officers who currently hold high positions in government is necessary because of their “culture of discipline, obedience to superiors, training in organization, tactical strategies in fighting the enemies of the state, and thorough preparedness in organization.”
He issued the statement following the appointments of Galvez as chief implementer of the national policy against the Covid-19 outbreak, and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año as chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Task Force (NTF) COVID-19.
Commission on Human Rights chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales urged law enforcers not to harass or “violently” punish violators of the enhanced community quarantine.
“When we put people in dog cages or beat them with sticks when they are caught outside, whose side are we really on? Our people or the virus?” she asked.
She reacted to a viral video showing a police officer in Quiapo, Manila, hitting a resident with a stick despite showing a quarantine pass just to buy food.
“We should not lose sight of why we ask our people to stay at home: it’s to keep them safe and healthy. If we violently punish curfew violators, we only compete with the virus in harming people,” she said.
“If we are to address the issue of people leaving their homes during the lockdown, we need to address the issue of lack of food and livelihood. If they don’t have food to put on the table, people will risk the curfew and leave their homes. Our workers need compassion from authorities in these troubling times,” she added.
She raised concern over supposed cases of harassment of women at police checkpoints.
Also on Friday, the Philippine National Police said it has set up a walk-through decontamination station in Camp Crame to disinfect all persons entering its national headquarters.
PNP spokesman Police Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said the makeshift decontamination procedure is part of the PNP-wide Biosafety Plan recommended by the PNP Health Service, that is now being observed in Camp Crame and all PNP camps as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19.
All vehicles entering Camp Crame will pass through a tire bath and its occupants are required to alight and walk through a disinfectant misting tent and undergo a body temperature scan.
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