Amendment to AO No. 8, S. 2020 Re: COVID-19 Guidelines on Service Continuity and Precautionary Measures in the Workplace

March 17, 2020

DA ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 09-20

 

Consistent with the Memorandum from the Executive Secretary dated 16 March 2020 on the Enhanced Community Quarantine over the entire Luzon and further Guidelines for the Management of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation. The Department of Agriculture's guidelines on enhanced community quarantine on service continuity are as follows:

1. A work-from-home arrangement shall be imposed during the enhanced community quarantine period in the National Capital Region and the entire Luzon area.

2. The Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service (AMAS) which is performing critical services as provided under Item No. 4 herein shall be in full operation during the entire duration of the enhanced community quarantine, effective (12am) 17 March 2020 and expiring on 00:00 (12am) of 13 April 2020.

3. Essential and frontline services shall maintain a skeletal workforce; those under the Information and Communications Technology Service (ICTS), Field Operations Service (FOS), Financial and Management Service (FMS), and Administrative Service (AS) shall be maintaining a workforce to the barest minimum; while those under Planning and Monitoring Service (PMS), Policy Research Service (PRS), Internal Audit Service (IAS), Project Development Service (PDS), Legal Service (LS) shall be on the work-from-home arrangement. It shall be understood that those offices not stated here shall work under the work-from-home arrangements.

4. Other critical services, such as but not limited to the following are considered in full operation:

a) Functions on the regular monitoring of supplies of stocks at various points of the supply chain;

b) Facilitation in giving exemption to transportation engaged in the delivery of food, including the inputs of production;

c) Frontline services involved in the monitoring to ensure the subject goods reached its final destination;

d) Anything related regulatory functions, such as, but not limited to, laboratory services, border control and quarantine services.

Item Nos. 1 to 5 shall be repealed, accordingly. All other provisions under AO No. 8, s. 2020 are all effective and operational.

These Guidelines shall take effect immediately.

For strict compliance.

(SGD.) WILLIAM D. DAR, Ph.D.Secretary