Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III supported the opening of churches instead of opening malls and other big establishments during the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) and the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ).
In a tweet, Sotto said that Churches and other small establishments should allow opening instead of big malls.
“Hindi ba dapat instead of opening malls we’d rather open the churches? With safe distancing of course!” Sotto said.
Hindi ba dapat instead of opening malls we’d rather open the churches? With safe distancing of course!
— Tito Sotto (@sotto_tito) May 17, 2020
“Hindi ba dapat instead of opening malls we should open the small businesses?” he added.
Hindi ba dapat instead of opening malls we should open the small businesses?
— Tito Sotto (@sotto_tito) May 17, 2020
The opening of shopping centers has been criticized by the netizens after photos of mall-goers not practicing social distancing has gone viral on social media.
Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla also ordered the malls in his province to temporarily close because of lack of social distancing.
Yesterday, Manila Apostolic Administrator Broderick Pabillo also questioned the decision of the government to open big establishments while limiting the people allowed to visit the church.
“The IATF came out with a recent decision that set the parameters for activities for the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) and the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ). In the church we are happy that in both, religious activities are allowed. But at the same time, the limitations they set to religious activities are unreasonable – 5 persons for MECQ and 10 persons for MGCQ! It is just another way of saying that you do not have religious activities,” the bishop said.
“Where did they get these numbers? Why is it that they do not give the absolute numbers of persons who can enter a store, or work in the office, or in the factory? Do they say that only 10 persons should be in an office, or that 20 persons work in a factory, or that only 5 persons can enter a store at a time? This would be preposterous!” he added.