Malacanang clarified on Wednesday that food delivery is 24/7 despite the 11-hour curfew in Metro Manila and four nearby provinces, which have been placed under the enhanced community quarantine.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the clarification after a video that went viral showed a female barangay tanod in Bulacan stopping a food delivery rider.

He told the tanod he was delivering “lugaw (rice porridge).”

But the female tanod, holding a photocopy of the guidelines from the Inter-Agency  Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, read to the rider that curfew is from 6pm to 5am.

She said that only essential goods, such as food, and essential services are allowed.

“Lugaw is not essential,” she repeatedly told the delivery man, adding that people could live even without lugaw.

In a phone interview, asked of the IATF policy about food delivery, Roque said, “food delivery is 24/7.”

“A video, which has been circulating online, has come to our attention. Lugaw, or any food item for that matter, is considered an essential good. Delivery of food items must remain unhampered 24/7. Let us not stop them at checkpoints,” Roque later said in a statement.

Aside from Metro Manila, also under ECQ and where the 11-hour curfew is being implemented are Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal. Celerina Monte/DMS