Philippines allows optional use of facemasks

MANILA: President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos signed an executive order allowing the voluntary or optional use of face mask in uncrowded and well-ventilated outdoor spaces.

This was reported on Monday by Press Secretary Trixie Angeles-cruz who told a Malacanang Palace media briefing that Marcos signed the order based on a recommendation of the Interagency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“We received today Executive Order No.3 allowing the voluntary wearing of face mask in outdoor setings and maintaining the enforcement of minimum health standards during the state of public health emergency for the coronavirus (COVID 19 pandemic,” Cruz said in Filipino.

The order, she said, would take effect immediately once it is published in the government journal or a newspaper of general circulation.

Cruz said the mask mandate outdoors was eased because the country has almost obtained a so-called “wall of immunity”against the virus. The Philippines is “six per cent away” from that, she pointed out.

But Cruz said senior citizens, immunocompromised persons (those with ailments like diabetes) and individuals not fully vaccinated against COVID 19 are “strongly encouraged” to continue wearing face masks.

The mandated use of face mask is also being enforced indoors or in hospitals and other medical facilities, according to Cruz.

At the same time, she said,es the state of national emergency due to COVID 19 which ended Sept 12 might be extended “for possibly another three months.” The state of national emergency was declared by former president Duterte.

The extension aims to accomplish such benefits as indemnification, procurement of COVID vaccines and special risk allowances for health care workers, Cruz said.

Earlier, President Marcos gave his verbal approval to the IATF recommendation while he was on a state visit to Singapore.

But Maria Rosario Vergeire, the Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge, said that Marcos would have to issue an executive order to make it official.

However, before Marcos approved the recommendation, officials in Cebu province and Cebu City in the Visayas eased the face mask mandate and allowed its use outdoors.

Other provinces also in the Visayas, especially Iloilo and Negros Occidental soon followed the Cebu example and allowed the optional use of face mask outdoors. In Davao City in Mindanao, the hometown of former president Duterte, however, the local officials would wait until December to follow the Marcos order.