Bacolod City – Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson is not yet inclined to allow children going out of their homes or in shopping malls, although Negros Occidental is now on Alert Level 2, stressing that he will still wait guidelines from the Inter Agency Task Force.
But Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello yesterday said that local chief executives are still given the discretion, to follow it, or not, if they would allow minors outside.
“Kung meron IATF resolution then pwede, pero kung ayaw sundin [ng LGU] then pwede rin, discretion yan ng local chief executives,” Bello explained.
Lacson said “from the very beginning, we were always guided by the IATF”.
If IATF allows that, then, of course, we will allow that. But they should be accompanied by their parents. That is our stand here in Negros Occidental, he stressed.
Minors, accompanied by their parents, are now allowed inside malls in Metro Manila after the capital region shifted to COVID-19 Alert Level 2. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of Bacolod City Public Information Office)