Rep. Franz Alvarez (1st district, Palawan) has clarified an earlier report which appeared on Palawan News on Monday stating he was hoping for an “early lifting” of the current enhanced community quarantine in Palawan.
Alvarez told Palawan News that his main message was mainly to encourage his constituents to continue to observe the current quarantine protocols in place until the scheduled effectivity of the ECQ period on April 14.
“Rep. Alvarez never called for an early lifting. What he said was that two weeks still remain and that the appeal was for people to pull through this by staying at home so that it will be easier for authorities to prove there is no local transmission. Without any local transmission, the hope was that it will be lifted as scheduled and not extended anymore,” Alvarez’ legal counsel told Palawan News.
In an earlier statement, Rep. Alvarez called for support to the ongoing ECQ, stating:
“Kung mapatutunayang walang local transmission ng virus sa Palawan, ibaba ng kinauukulan ang nakapataw na quarantine.”
As of Tuesday, there has been only one COVID-19 case in Palawan, involving an Australian tourist who had already left the country when he was confirmed to be afflicted by the disease.
Palawan is still awaiting the laboratory test results of six persons under investigation (PUI) presently confined in various hospitals.
