All Presidential Security Group (PSG) personnel will be quarantined, and not a total lockdown of the Malacañang Complex,  starting Saturday amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, its chief said on Friday.

Presidential Security Group Commander Col. Jesus Durante said the quarantine of the PSG personnel will start on Saturday, March 28 until Friday, April 10.

The proposal has been coordinated with the Office of the President (OP) for approval, Durante said.

The proposal came after a lawmaker who attended a Palace meeting tested positive for COVID-19.

Durante said he has ordered the strict quarantine of all PSG personnel, and assured the public that the Palace has been disinfected.

“All PSG personnel will be quarantined but sa OP baka selective kundi, hindi tatakbo ang Palasyo,” he said.

The Malacanang employees will be subject to screening procedures before entering the Palace.

Under the lockdown, visitors will not be allowed to enter Palace grounds, Durante said.

ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap, who tested positive for COVID-19, could face charges after failing to declare his test before visiting Malacañang Palace last March 21, the head of President Rodrigo Duterte’s official security said on Thursday.

Yap did not declare that he got tested for COVID-19 or any symptoms related to the disease when he attended a meeting in Malacañang on March 21 as required for all visitors in the Palace, Durante said.

Since February, Malacañang has been requiring Palace visitors to fill up a health declaration form due to the virus spread.

“For whatever reason, he failed to disclose all needed information. PSG troopers on duty assessed him according to the answers on the said form he submitted, the basis of which he was allowed entry,” Durante said in a statement.

“We might (file charges), depends on the outcome of the investigation,” he said.

The PSG is currently investigating Yap’s attendance of the meeting.

“This incident shall serve as a reference for PSG’s implementation of an enhanced screening measures for all those who enter Malacañang Complex,” he said,

Yap had apologized and appealed for understanding to those whom he may have exposed to the virus and claimed that he was not showing any signs of respiratory illness when he went to work.

“Wala naman akong respiratory illness naramdaman talaga. Promise ‘yon. Hindi naman ako magsinungaling   (I wasn’t showing signs of respiratory illness. I promised. I don’t lie.),” Yap said.

In its health declaration form, the Palace has warned that falsifying answers is punishable under the Revised Penal Code./Stacy Ang