MANILA, Philippines Senators are hoping that cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would continue to taper off and that the latest extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will be the last so that enough resources would be left to jumpstart economic recovery.

The lawmakers also supported President Dutertes decision to extend the lockdown in Metro Manila and other high-risk areas while easing restrictions in others.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the entire country must exert all efforts to help contain the spread of COVID-19 in the last 21 days of ECQ even as he warned that the Filipinos way of life may not be the same again or a new normal may be enforced after restrictions are lifted.

Lives and health before economy. The economy can be revived later but a life lost cannot be resurrected. Only Jesus does that, Sotto said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the extension was expected but the governmentwill eventually have to allow people to get back to work little by little, and plan for the next three years.

Expect a new normal with physical distancing, wearing masks, lack of consumer confidence, worker confidence and investor confidence. The government must prepare for mass testing, isolation and treatment. Invest more on healthcare infrastructure. Incentivize health workers, nurses, doctors etc. and provide worker subsidies, interest free loans for businesses and repurpose industries, Recto said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the country wasstill a thousand miles away from flattening the curve and despite the missteps and shortcomings of some government agencies, it cannot be denied that ECQ has contributed its share in minimizing the spread of the virus.

As the country takes the cautious, calculated step of extending quarantine, the government must at the same time expedite relief and succor to the vulnerable sectors, Sen. Grace Poe said.

She said poverty has been exacerbated by this pandemic, thus concerned agencies should work double time so that all forms of assistance reach target families who are in need.

Congressmen also welcomed yesterday the decision of President Duterte to again extend quarantine.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the quarantine has been effective in preventing spread of the disease so far.

The ECQ is working, so lets help one another in making it successful, he told reporters in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City where he donated food supplies for police Special Action Force.

Valenzuela City Rep. Wes Gatchalian, House trade and industry committee chairman, said the health of the people is the primary concern of the government but he also urged the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases to consider adjusting rules on specific trade sectors in order to sustain the needs of communities under the extended quarantine.

Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co, one of the original proponents of the selective and modified quarantine scheme, lauded the decision of President Duterte to extend the ECQ in Metro Manila and other provinces while gradually easing stay-at-home orders in areas with zero or very few cases of COVID-19.

Last April 14,Co pushed for conditional quarantine lifting to restart economic activities in select areas and help ease governments burden during the COVID-19 pandemic. These include island-provinces with zero to one case of COVID-19 in the last 15 days or in the case of municipalities only those with zero cases.

The objective of quarantine lifting is to allow people, albeit in limited numbers and in select localities, to return to their jobs. Were fighting a protracted war and until no vaccine is invented, governments limited resources cant support and feed all those who were displaced. We need to save government funds for the longer battle, Co said.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said the ECQ extension is necessary to save lives at the expense of large economic losses that could anyway be recovered in years to come.

Salceda explained that while the two-month quarantine could result in P1.2 trillion in economic losses, health standards should first be met before ECQ could be lifted.

The health outcomes will decide everything. Any temporary recovery that takes place when we lift the ECQ prematurely is illusory. We need sustained recovery, because certainty is the foundation of lasting economic recovery. Thats why I support the decision tool that the IATF is adopting, he pointed out.

Salceda suggested four measures to be put in place during the extended ECQ period comprehensive measures to protect at-risk and vulnerable population, strict compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions like wearing face mask and social distancing, full protection for frontliners and readiness for peak capacity and mass testing of at least 0.22 percent of pupulation.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. backed yesterday the extension of ECQ in Metro Manila and other high risk provinces until May 15.

What a relief. I believe in it and advocated it, Locsin said in a post on Twitter.

He said he has informed his counterparts from the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) about the extension of the ECQ in some parts of the country during their recent videoconference.

The DFA said 818 more Filipino workers were repatriated from the United Kingdom, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo and Australia and arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Thursday afternoon and early yesterday morning.

The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) yesterday lamented that thebiggest problems right now under the COVID-19 quarantine are inadequate mass testing, slow social amelioration for the poor, the economic slowdown and relentless assaults on human rights. With Edu Punay, Helen Flores, Rhodina Villanueva, Czeriza Valencia

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Senators hope ECQ extension will be the last - Philippine Star