Palace defends IATF decision allowing minors in malls

Malacañang defended the government’s decision to allow minors to visit malls amid the continuous COVID-19 threat in the country.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said local government units are ordered to issue ordinances to ensure that children would not be “super-spreaders” of the virus.

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“Kaya nga po ang isang basic requirement [ay] dapat kasama nila ang kanilang mga magulang,” Roque said at a news conference.

Last night, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said minors could visit malls as longs as they are with their parents.

“Para na rin po sa kapaskuhan ay dun sa ipinag-utos natin na pwede ng gradual expansion ng age group para makalabas, ang mga minors, basta accompanied ng mga magulang ay papayagang makalabas at makapunta sa malls,” Año said.

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“Ito ay pagtitibayin sa mga ordinansa ng ating mga mayors dun sa lugar ng ,” he added.

Roque said the government had imposed strict measures to limit the movement of people that affected many businesses.

Palace defends IATF decision allowing minors in malls

“It’s really to invite families to visit the malls again dahil ngayon po talaga maski tayo nagluwag na, maluluwag po talaga ang mga malls. Talagang hindi po lumalabas pa rin ang ating mga kababayan,” he said.

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“Tayo talaga ‘yung naging super restrictive pagdating sa movement, kaya po binubuksan na po,” Roque added.

The Philippines ranked 46th out of 53 countries in ’s COVID resilience ranking, which measured how a nation handled the COVID-19 crisis.
The Philippines performed poorly when it came to community mobility—the “movement of people to offices and retail spaces compared to a pre-pandemic baseline in the past month”—with a -39.4% score. Only two countries had a lower score.
However, Roque insisted that the Philippines had managed the COVID-19 situation “very well,” saying the government’s pandemic response resulted in a low death rate and low number of severe and critical cases.
The Department of Health has repeatedly warned the public to avoid crowded places and comply with health protocols to prevent COVID-19 surge during the Christmas season.
As of November 30, the Department of Health recorded 1,773 additional new cases of COVID-19. Meanwhile, 44 recorded while 19 died.