Acting Mayor Michael Rama on Monday said the city might seek President Rodrigo Duterte’s intervention in case its fight against the continued surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases fails.

“Pero mao ni gusto sa mga gawo di I will now ask the President kun di magpatuo ang mga tawo, di ako tawagon ang president, hala ibutang mi sa ECQ (If the people really like it, I am constrained to ask the President, place us under enhanced community quarantine again),” Rama said in a radio interview.

He said the city is still on top of the situation but needs the cooperation of the provincial government especially on restricting the entry of public transport passengers from the towns.

The provincial capitol decided to forego strict border control after the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) placed the entire Cebu island under modified enhanced community quarantine.

However, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, in a press conference on Monday, said the IATF heard the capitol’s appeal and downgraded the province’s status to general community quarantine.

This city currently has 2,942 active cases of Covid-19 based on the latest Department of Health (DOH)-Central Visayas bulletin, Rama said. With this, he said they are converting the Abellana National School into a patient care center, to augment the existing facilities.

So far, the city is overseeing the Cebu City Quarantine Center and barangay isolation centers to accommodate the daily increase in the number of coronavirus patients.

“Figures cannot lie. Only liars cannot figure (it out),” Rama said.

On Sunday alone, the DOH-7 reported 415 new infections and 11 deaths here due to Covid-19.

DOH-Central Visayas director, Dr. Jaime Bernadas, in the same radio program, said he respects Rama’s idea of calling for the President’s help as the acting mayor has seen the actual situation in the city, given the rising number of Covid-19 patients. (PNA)