Metro Manila mayors to allow teens aged 15-17 outdoors

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila Mayors have agreed to allow more teenagers, specifically those aged 15 to 17 years, outdoors amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“Mayors of Metro Manila have agreed to lower age restrictions… Before we allowed only people aged 18 to 65 outside, now we have agreed that people aged 15 to 17 can go outside,” Metro Manila Council (MMC) chairman and Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez told Teleradyo yesterday.

Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro, however, last night told One News’ “The Chiefs” that his city is against the move.

Olivarez noted that the council, composed of Metro Manila mayors, considered the efforts to reopen the economy.

“But we will not sacrifice our (health) protocols,” he stressed.

In October last year, the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), which handles the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response, announced that people aged 15 to 65 can go out, adjusting the previous age restriction of 21 to 60 years old.

However, the MMC came up with its own rule saying only people aged 18 to 65 could go out, making Metro Manila the only area in the country to enforce such a rule.

Recently, the IATF also announced that certain businesses would be allowed to reopen, including gaming arcades where customers are mostly children and teenagers.

Olivarez said it would be “contradictory” to let arcades reopen but ban teenagers from going out of their houses.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benhur Abalos revealed that prior to the agreement to let more teenagers out, the MMC received a proposal during a meeting last week allowing children, aged at least five years old, outdoors.

“There was a presentation… to lower it to age 5… We opposed this, we thought it would be better to make things gradual, the mayors should be consulted,” he said at a media briefing yesterday.