QUEZON CITY -- The Anti-Red Tape Authority expressed support for a Memorandum Circular (MC) issued by the Office of the President on the full operating capacity of the government amid the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from August 6 to 20.
MC No. 87 states that government agencies and instrumentalities in the National Capital Region (NCR) should remain fully operational even as it shifts to ECQ.

During the said period, all government agencies and instrumentalities in NCR shall have a skeleton workforce of at least 20-percent capacity on-site, while the rest will be under alternative working arrangements.

This MC is aligned with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF-EID) Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines.

The Authority has been reminding government agencies and local government units to ensure that they remain at full operating capacity despite the pandemic.

This, as the agency continues to receive complaints from the public against government workers allegedly using alternative working arrangements as an excuse to be inefficient in their work.

Secretary Jeremiah Belgica, ARTA Director General, said he has also seen how some government agencies implemented cut-off schemes and had backlogs of pending applications and requests, which workers blamed on their lack of manpower, during the Authority's inspections.

"Alternative working arrangements, like the work-from-home arrangement, was implemented to uphold government workers safety amid the pandemic. It should not be used as an excuse for inefficiency," the ARTA chief said.

"Now more than ever, the Filipino people need its government to be fully operational so they know that we are working hard to make their lives easy and comfortable amid these challenging times," he added.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte placed NCR under ECQ—the strictest community quarantine classification—to curb the spread of the more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.  (ARTA)