“Sterilizer ordinance” hurdles review

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Council’s committee on laws, ordinances, and styling interposed no objection for the approval of a proposed ordinance requiring all food establishments in the city to install sterilizer for their utensils.

“This Committee is of the considered opinion that the proposed ordinance falls within the ambit of the General Welfare clause and is well within the authority of the Sanggunian to enact. Furthermore, its provisions appear to be pursuant to law and existing rules and regulations and does not appear to suffer from any legal impediment,” read the committee report.

The committee also recommended that the proposed ordinance may be enacted in its entirety should the members have nothing to add, modify, or delete.

The proposed measure entitled “Sanitation of Dining Utensils Ordinance of the City of Cebu” is authored by Councilor Nestor Archival.

The committee, however, stated that it must undergo a public hearing before its second reading since it provides for a penal clause. This is to give any interested person, or in this case the affected establishments, an ample opportunity to air out their grievances or concerns, if any.

Section 7 of the proposed measure states that violators shall be penalized with a fine of P1,000 for the first offense; P3,000 for the second offense; P5,000 for the third offense; and P5,000 and revocation of business permit for the fourth and succeeding offense.

Section 3 also states that the measure shall apply to all dining establishments, registered or not, in the city regardless of the dining capacity, number of crew, kind of food they serve, and whether the same is a self-service dining or not.

These establishments shall, within the eating place, provide or install a dining utensils sterilizer or heater where food utensils are sterilized or sanitized first before handling or letting the customers use the same.

“Sanitation in these establishments especially in the eating utensils is vital to our goal to suppress if not completely eliminate COVID-19 in our City especially nowadays that we are slowly embracing the effects of the new normal,” the proposed ordinance states.

The committee said the intention of the proposed ordinance is quite well-founded.

“This Committee is mindful of the fact that the ongoing pandemic has ushered in a new normal where society is tasked to revisit current health and sanitation protocols to improve them in the hopes of finally putting an end to the spread of COVID-19. While the general consensus among scientists and health experts is that surface transmission is unlikely, it is still nonetheless theoretically possible,” the committee said.

“Even if the provision for heaters and/or sterilizers would have little to no impact in COVID-19 prevention, at the very least, it may also help prevent other communicable diseases and foodborne illnesses; ultimately promoting the general health and welfare of the City’s inhabitants,” it added. —FPL (FREEMAN)