THE Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) may tackle the plea of Catholic Church officials to further increase capacity for religious events.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the IATF-MEID “may include the request of the bishops for a higher limit” in their meeting scheduled either Tuesday or Thursday.
Guevarra, however, noted that Church leaders have yet to make any formal request.
“The IATF has not received any formal request from any religious group,” the DOJ chief said.
The call of the Church leaders to increase the capacity of people in religious events came just almost a week before the observance of Ash Wednesday and the country’s commemoration of the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines.
It was reported that Catholic Church officials are asking the government to expand the allowed capacity for religious activities after the OCTA Research Group said that the holiday season and the Feast of the Black Nazarene celebration last January 9 did not cause any spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the National Capital Region (NCR).
At present, public religious worship is allowed up to 50 percent of venue capacity in modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) areas and 30 percent in general community quarantine areas like in the NCR.
The justice chief earlier said the findings of the OCTA could have “persuasive effects” on the IATF-MEID policies “if it could be shown to have a sound empirical basis.”
“Of course the government’s own data will be controlling [bases] most of the time,” he stressed.
He also admitted that allowing more people to take part in religious gatherings has been a contentious issue among the IATF-MEID members.