Government offices will remain open, but with reduced on-site personnel as the National Capital Region (NCR) begins its two-week lockdown on Friday, August 6, 2021.
Last Tuesday, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 87 stating the guidelines on “on-site capacity” for government offices and instrumentalities during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metropolitan Manila.
Under the issuance, government offices, including government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCC), under the Executive department will only be required to operate with on-site skeleton work force.
“To ensure continuity of government service, the skeleton work force shall not be less than 20 percent on-site capacity at any given time, with the remainder being under work-from-home arrangements,” Medialdea said.
Only agencies, which provide health and emergency frontline services, laboratory and testing services, border control, and other critical services will be allowed full on-site capacity.
Medialdea “strongly urged” offices under the legislative and judicial branches of the government as well as independent constitutional commissions and bodies, local government units in NCR to also implement a similar arrangement during the ECQ.
He instructed the affected government offices, which will be affected by ECQ, to submit to the head of their respective office the specific percentage of the agency’s skeleton work force, together with their working arrangements during the lockdown.
“The department head may, at any time, direct the modification of the submitted on-site capacity or related arrangements, as health considerations and the exigencies of the service may require,” Medialdea said.
The government placed NCR under hard lockdown in a bid to control the spread of Covid-19 Delta variant cases in the region since last month.