Cebu City Lifts Mask Mandate; DOH Worried

The wearing of face masks outdoors and in open spaces is no longer mandatory in Cebu City starting today, Sept. 1.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama signed on Thursday, Aug. 31, Executive Order No. 5, making the use of face masks in the city non-obligatory, with the decision on whether to wear the protective gear left to the decision of each person.

“The wearing of face mask should be individually taken by all citizens as a measure of self-preservation and protection under the principle of shared responsibility and mutual respect,” Rama said in his four-page EO.

He maintained, though, that wearing face masks in hospitals, clinics and other medical or diagnostic facilities remains mandatory.

People who are either immunocompromised, sick or with flu-like symptoms are strongly advised to stay indoors and must still wear the protective gear when outside their homes.

The local chief executive said all establishments, businesses and entities, including administrators of buildings and facilities, are granted the discretion to determine whether to require wearing face masks in their areas of responsibility.

The national government has mandated wearing face masks in outdoor settings when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in 2020.

Rama, however, said the lethal effect of the pandemic is already wearing off based on the current situation worldwide and that COVID-19 vaccines have been proven effective in containing the spread and impact of the virus.

In an interview with dzMM Teleradyo, the mayor underscored the government must learn to move forward from the pandemic.

“We have to move forward, rise up and move forward and be more already looking at from the point of view of pragmatism,” he said.

For Rama, it is now time for the city to look beyond and shift its focus, even if COVID-19 is still around.

“I’ve seen the newspaper when I arrived from Canada, I saw an article about seeing that downward (trend) of COVID (cases). Also looking at our own data that the figures are more on the admissions rising (in) non-COVID (cases), so we might just also do our own shifting without being oblivious that the so-called COVID is there, but it doesn’t mean that it is still only our focus,” he said in English and Cebuano.

Rama’s EO was the result of multi-sectoral consultation with stakeholders in the city, the local government said in a post on Facebook.

In June, the Cebu provincial government and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) clashed briefly over a provincial ordinance making the use of face masks optional in well-ventilated and open spaces.

LGUs’ mandates

Malacañang said it respects the mandate of local government units (LGUs) following Rama’s EO.

“We respect the mandate of local governments over their own jurisdictions. The President has no reaction to this as of yet,” Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said at a media briefing on Thursday.

Angeles said they are also waiting for the DOH’s position on the voluntary use of face mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are also waiting for the reaction of the DOH (Department of Health) on this, so without all of that info coming in, there will be no statement yet,” she added.

Meanwhile, the DOH has expressed concern over the lifting of the mask mandate in Cebu City, saying it could lead to the further spread of COVID-19 in the country.

“It cannot be that one area in our country is implementing its own protocol while the rest of the country is implementing the other side of the protocol or the opposite because we know that we have porous border,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in Filipino and English at a press briefing.

“If we will not have that kind of safeguard, therefore, the possibility or risk of infection would be higher in this area because the safeguards are not there and therefore, people who are going there or people from the place going out might have that higher risk of infecting other people from other areas,” Vergeire added.

The DOH official noted that the Cebu City government came out with the new EO removing the mask mandate without consulting the DOH.

The DOH said it understands that there are people who do not want to use face masks outdoors, but Vergeire appealed for them to wait until the protection rate of Filipinos has improved.

She stressed that the DILG is implementing the protocols across the country, and there is no exemption.

While the number of COVID-19 cases is now declining, Vergeire still underscored the need for people to put on their masks, which provides 70 to 80 percent protection from COVID.

She gave assurance that the government will undertake a study, and the face mask mandate will be suspended if proven that the bigger number of the population are protected from COVID.

Vaccination and compliance with minimum public health standards are the best ways to control the pandemic, according to the DOH official. – With Helen Flores, Mayen Jaymalin