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Interior Secretary Eduardo Año welcomed the decision of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to set aside her Executive Order 23 and will now follow the government’s IATF protocols, an official said on Wednesday.

“Secretary Eduardo Año welcomes this as a positive development, and we will continue to coordinate with the local government of Cebu through Governor Gwen Garcia,” Interior Assistant Secretary Odilon Pasaraba said during the “Laging Handa” public briefing.

Pasaraba, acting spokesman of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said the IATF Council is studying the protocols being implemented by the Cebu government.

“We need to study and talk about that matter. We will give you an update on this,” he said.

Last Tuesday, Año said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III is scheduled to visit Cebu on June 28 to discuss this with Garcia.

Garcia said Cebu will follow the seventh day swab rule of IATF but they will still implement their “swab-upon-arrival”.

“As far as the Province of Cebu is concerned, the Provincial Ordinance was the effective law of the province… Even as I set aside EO 23, we shall continue with the swab-upon-arrival policy because we have found that doing this gives us better control of those that arrived already testing positive,” she said. Ella Dionisio/DMS