THE Manila Police District on Monday said 135 barangays in the city of Manila will be placed under “hard” lockdown due to the high number of violators of guidelines set under the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in effect until April 30.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno met with police and military yesterday to discuss and fine-tune details for the hard lockdown.
Among those who attended the meeting were MPD Director Brig. Gen. Rolando Miranda, AFP Joint Task Force NCR Commander Brig. Gen. Alex Luna, MPD Station 4 commander Lt. Col. John Guiagui, and MPD Special Mayor’s Reaction Team chief police Maj. Rosalino Ibay Jr.
Miranda said the breakdown of the 135 is as follows: 33 under the Raxabago and Moriones police stations in Tondo, 21 under the Sta.Cruz and Sampaloc police, 22 in Ermita and Sta. Ana areas, 24 in Jose Abad Santos and Sta. Mesa areas, 28 in Malate and Pandacan areas, and seven in Binondo.
Manila has 897 barangays. For administrative convenience, all the barangays in Manila are grouped into 100 zones and which are further grouped into 16 administrative districts.
“Ang mga barangay na ito ay itinuturing ng kandidato na maaaring isailalim ng pamahalaan sa hard lockdown (These barangays can be considered candidates that can be placed under hard lockdown),” Miranda said.
Moreno said Sampaloc will be placed under total lockdown to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus, which has already infected 95 persons in the area.
He refused, however, to state when he will hand down the order.
A total lockdown would mean the cancellation of all quarantine passes, and residents would be prohibited from leaving their homes, except for a few exemptions.
Only emergency responders, medical and security personnel and employees of pharmacies, drugs stores and funeral homes would be allowed to leave their homes.
In Marikina, City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro ordered the closure of a portion of the Marikina public market after a 72-year-old market vendor died due to respiratory illness. City health officials have conducted a COVID-19 test on the vendor.
The city’s Epidemiological Surveillance Unit has started contact tracing of the persons who had close contacts with the victims.
Teodoro has also ordered the disinfection of the market located at J.P. Rizal street in barangay Sta. Elena.
The sections of the market that have been closed are the wet section (fish, poultry, meat), grocery and food section, fruits and vegetables section, and coconut/niyugan section.
The closed part of the market will resume operations on Wednesday. — With Christian Oineza
