Davao City: Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte told Dabawenyos to expect difficulty in moving around the city with stringent lockdown rules under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) which took effect at 9 p.m on Saturday, April 4, 2020.
Aside from the lack of public transport, Mayor Sara said the law enforcers have set-up more checkpoints to ensure that movements of people are limited only to essential purposes.
“It will really be difficult for people to move kay ang checkpoint nato daghan na kaayo because ilaha nang gi-distribute na ang atoang area among themselves. Moabot gyud sa punto nga if nakalusot ka’g pamakak sa pikas, di gyud ka makalusot sa pikas (It will be difficult for people to move because there will be a lot of checkpoints. Law enforcers have been deployed in many areas. If you lie and pass one checkpoint, at some point you cannot pass the next one),” Mayor Sara said.
Thus, the mayor reiterated calls for people to stay at home to avoid any inconvenience.
While the ECQ already took effect on Saturday night, the use of Food and Medicine (FM) pass is on Tuesday, April 7, 2020, to give barangays enough time to distribute it to their constituents. From April 7, 2020, no resident would be allowed to go out without an FM pass, except workers with company IDs from essential establishments that are allowed under Executive Order No. 23.
Meanwhile, Davao City Police Office (DCPO) Director Police Col. Kirby John Kraft said additional checkpoints have been set up near wet markets to make sure that FM pass and social distancing are observed.
“Currently we have 24 checkpoints all over the city manned by the DCPO. With the set up of Enhanced Community Quarantine, we have added 12 more near wet markets. We will ask people to present their FM passes in our checkpoint,” Kraft said.
DCPO has also increased the presence of foot, mobile and bike patrols to remind residents who are going out without FM passes.
The Task Force Davao will also implement stricter rules in all of Davao City’s entry points, ensuring that only authorized vehicles and persons enter Davao City.
“We will be checking all persons entering Davao City if they have issued FM Pass or workers ID. We will also check their body temperature to ensure that individuals showing symptoms of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) infection will immediately be isolated and brought to proper medical facilities as mandated by EO 23,” said TF Davao Commander Consolito Yecla. CIO
