ECQ Guidelines | From IATF and Malacañang Palace

This is the latest Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) Guidelines released by the Malacañang Palace through the Executive Order No. 112 series of 2020.

The Executive Order No. 112 is entitled “IMPOSING AN ENHANCED COMMUNITY QUARANTINE IN HIGH- RISK GEOGRAPHIC AREAS OF THE PHILIPPINES AND A GENERAL COMMUNITY QUARANTINE IN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY FROM 01 TO 15 MAY 2020, ADOPTING THE OMNIBUS GUIDELINES ON THE IMPLEMENTATION THEREOF, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”.

Areas Under ECQ

An ECQ shall be in effect in the entirety of the following geographic areas, including all provinces, highly-urbanized cities (HUCs), independent component cities (ICCs), component cities (CCs), and municipalities situated therein, from 12:01 a.m. of 01 May 2020 to 11:59 p.m. of 15 May 2020:

1. National Capital Region;
2. Region III (Central Luzon), except Aurora Province;
3. Region IV-A (CALABARZON);
4. Benguet Province;
5. Pangasinan Province;
6. lloilo Province;
7. Cebu Province;
8. Bacolod City; and
9. Davao

The Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines, as approved and recommended under IATF Resolution No. 30 is hereby confirmed and adopted.

Approved ECQ Guidelines

1. Minimum public health standards shall be complied with at all times for the duration of the ECQ.
2. Strict home quarantine shall be observed in all households, and the movement of all residents shall be limited to accessing essential goods and services, and for work in permitted offices or establishments listed hereunder.
3. Any person below twenty-one (21) years old, those who are sixty (60) years old and above, those with immunodeficiency, comorbidities, or other health risks, and pregnant women, including any person who resides with the aforementioned, shall be required to remain in their residents at all times, except when indispensable under the circumstances for obtaining essential goods and services or for work in permitted industries and offices.
4. The following are allowed to work or operate with a skeleton workforce unless a different operational capacity is provided:
   1. All agencies and instrumentalities of the government, including GOCCs, as well as LGUs, especially health and emergency frontline, border control, and other critical services, as well as government vehicles;
   2. Officials and employees of foreign diplomatic missions and international organizations accredited by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), whenever performing diplomatic functions and subject to the guidelines issued by the DFA;
   3. Industries involved in agriculture, forestry, and fishery and their workers, including farmers, Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs), fisherfolk, and agri-fishery stores, and such other components of the food value chain, at full operational capacity;
   4. Private establishments and their employees involved in the provision of essential goods and services, and activities in the value chain related to food and medicine production, such as but not limited to, public markets, supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, laundry shops, food preparation establishments insofar as take-out and delivery services, water-refilling stations, hospitals, medical, dental, and optometry clinics, pharmacies, and drug stores. Provided, that for dental procedures, the wearing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) by dentists and attendants shall be mandatory, with strict observance to infection prevention and control protocols;
   5. Manufacturing and processing plants of basic food products, medicine and vitamins, medical supplies, devices and equipment, and essential products such as but not limited to soap and detergents, diapers, feminine hygiene products, toilet papers and wet wipes, and disinfectants. Provided, that establishments involved in the production, manufacturing, packaging, processing, and distribution of food may operate at a maximum of fifty percent (50%) of their respective workforces, unless the supply level of a basic food product warrants a higher capacity. In which case, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is hereby authorized to approve the temporary increase of workforce capacity. Provided, further, that manufacturers of medicines, medical supplies, devices and equipment, including but not limited to suppliers of input, packaging, and distribution, shall be allowed to operate at full capacity;
   6. Delivery services, whether in-house or outsourced, transporting food, medicine, or other essential goods. Delivery of clothing, accessories, hardware, housewares, school and office supplies, as well as pet food and other veterinary products, shall likewise be allowed;
   7. Banks, money transfer services microfinance institutions, excluding pawnshops not performing money transfer, and credit cooperatives, including their armored vehicle services, if any;
   8. Capital markets, including but not limited to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Securities and Exchange Commission, Philippine Stock Exchange, Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation, Philippine Securities Settlement Corporation, and Philippine Depository and Trust Corporation;
   9. Power, energy, water, information technology and telecommunications supplies and facilities, including waste disposal services, as well as property management and building utility services;
   10. Energy companies, their third-party contractors and service providers, including employees involved in electric transmission and distribution, electric power plant and line maintenance, electricity market and retail suppliers, as well as those involved in the exploration, operations, trading and delivery of coal, oil, crude or petroleum and by-products (gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, jet oil, kerosene, lubricants), including refineries and depots or any kind of fuel used to produce electricity;
   11. Telecommunications companies, internet service providers, cable television providers, including those who perform indirect services such as the technical, sales, and other support personnel, as well as the employees of their third-patty contractors doing sales, installation, maintenance and repair works;
   12. Business process outsourcing establishments (BPOs) and export-oriented business with work-from-home, on-site or near site accommodation, or point-to-point shuttling arrangements. For this purpose, BPOs and their service providers and export-oriented businesses shall be allowed to install and transport the necessary work-from-home equipment} to enhance their operations by deploying their workers under on-site or near-site accommodation arrangements, or provide point-to-point shuttle services from their near-site accommodations to their offices.
   13. Airline and aircraft maintenance employees including pilots and crew, and ship captains and crew;
   14. Media establishments, at a maximum operational capacity of fifty percent (50%) of their total permanent staff complement as registered under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), inclusive of reporters and other field employees, as accredited by the Presidential Communications Operations Office;
   15. Construction workers accredited by the Department of Public Works and Highways to work on facilities identified for purposes of quarantine and isolation, including such facilities for the health sector, emergency works, flood control, and other disaster risk reduction and rehabilitation works;
   16. Manufacturing companies and suppliers of equipment or products necessary to perform construction works;
   17. Workers accredited by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to work on utility relocation works, and specified limited works across thirteen (13) railway projects, including replacementworks for the Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 3, Provided, that where applicable, on-site or near-site accommodations and/or point-to-point shuttle services should be arranged;
   18. Employees of the Philippine Postal Corporation at a capacity necessary to maintain the prompt delivery of services to its clients;
   19. The Philippine Statistics Authority, at a capacity necessary to conduct data gathering and survey activities related to COVID-19 and the registration and implementation of the national identification (ID) system;
   20. Funeral and embalming services. Provided, that funeral service operators tile directed to provide shuttling services and/or housing accommodations for their personnel and staff;
   21. Humanitarian assistance personnel from civil society organizations (CSOs), non-government organizations (NGOs), and United Nations-Humanitarian Country Teams, as well as individuals performing relief operations to augment the government’s response against COVID-19 and other disasters or calamities that may occur. Provided, that they are authorized by the appropriate government agency or LGU;
   22. Pastors, priests, imams or such other religious ministers whose movement shall be related to the conduct of necrological or funeral rites. In this connection, immediate family members of the deceased from causes other than COVID-19 shall be allowed to move from their residences to attend the wake or interment of the deceased upon satisfact01Y proof of their relationship with the latter and social distancing measures;
   23. Veterinary clinics; and
   24. Security personnel;
       • For purposes of the foregoing, transit by permitted persons to and from the above establishments anywhere within the area covered by ECQ shall be allowed.
5. The co-equal or independent authority of the legislature (Senate and the House of Representatives), the judiciary (the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Court of Tax Appeals, Sandiganbayan, and the lower courts), the Office of the Ombudsman, and the constitutional commissions to operate and accredit their skeleton workforces, or implement any other alternative work arrangements, is recognized.
6. No hotels or similar establishments shall be allowed to operate, except those accommodating the following:
   1. For outside Luzon, guests who have existing booking accommodations for foreigners as of May l, 2020;
   2. Guests who have existing long-term bookings;
   3. Distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and stranded Filipinos 01′ foreign nationals;
   4. Repatriated OFWs in compliance with approved quarantine protocols;
   5. Non-OFWs who may be required to undergo mandatory facility-based quarantine; and
   6. Health care workers and other employees from exempted establishments under these Omnibus Guidelines and applicable Memoranda from the Executive Secretary.
      • Provided that in all of the foregoing, hotel operations shall be limited to the provision of basic lodging to guests.
7. Mass gatherings such as but not limited to, movie screenings, concerts, sporting events, and other entertainment activities, community assemblies, religious gatherings, and non-essential work gatherings shall be prohibited.
8. Physical classes at all levels shall be suspended for the duration of the ECQ.
9. Public transportation shall be suspended. This notwithstanding commissioned shuttle services for employees of permitted offices or establishments, as well as point-to-point transport services provided by the government for healthcare workers including frontline and emergency personnel, shall be allowed to operate.
10. Agencies and their regional offices in the executive branch are hereby directed to issue accreditation, office, or travel orders to identify their respective skeleton workforces for critical services operating for the duration of the ECQ, Bona fide IDs issued by the respective agencies shall be sufficient for movement within the contained areas. Skeleton workforces may use official agency vehicles.
11. Regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over permitted establishments or persons are likewise tasked to issue official IATF accreditation Bona fide IDs issued by establishments exempted from the strict home quarantine requirement shall likewise be honored by law enforcement agencies.
12. The RapidPass system shall be complementary to the existing IATF IDs issued by the member-agencies which shall continue to be honored in all quarantine checkpoints. Enrollment for RapidPass IDs shall be voluntary and shall only cover qualified private sector entities or persons. The movement of cargo vehicles shall be unhampered. Cargo vehicles as well as vehicles used by public utility companies, BPOs, and export-oriented establishments shall not be subject to an ID system.
13. Government offices and private corporations are encouraged to process payrolls online. However, for those who cannot, payroll managers) and such other employees that may be required to process payrolls and print payrolls shall be allowed to travel and operate covering the periods of ECQ.
14. Other exemptions from the home quarantine requirement through previous IATF resolutions or issuances by the Office of the President shall be honored.

Read Also: General Community Quarantine (GCQ) Guidelines | From IATF and Malacañang Palace

Copy of Executive Order No. 112 (ECQ Guidelines)

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