ILOILO City – Border restrictions in this city, Iloilo province and Bacolod City were lifted yesterday, less than 24 hours after the local government units (LGUs) issued separate travel bans.
“Upon due consideration, the City of Iloilo hereby reconsiders its decision to ban the travel of passengers from Iloilo City to Bacolod and vice versa,” Mayor Jerry Treñas said in a statement.
He likewise apologized for the inconvenience.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia, for his part, said: “We all agreed to reopen both our borders immediately.”
Leonardia revealed that he talked with Treñas and officials of the Western Visayas Regional Task Force (RTF) on COVID-19 Wednesday morning.
He also clarified the advisory issued by Riverside Medical Center, a privately-run hospital in Bacolod City, declaring that its isolation facility has already reached “full capacity.”
According to Leonardia, this did not mean that the COVID-19 situation in the city and Negros Island had worsened.
The mayor said that hospital officials told him that the isolation facility is also being used by hospital personnel who need to be isolated as a precautionary measure.
To recall, Treñas set a travel ban on those coming from Bacolod City and the rest of Negros Occidental province due to rising number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
This also led Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. to issue travel ban at ports for incoming passengers from Negros Occidental province.
Leonardia subsequently issued border restrictions for those coming from Panay and Guimaras island.
He said his order was “primarily in reciprocity” to Trenas’ order.
But on Wednesday, the Western Visayas regional offices of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) appealed to the local officials to reconsider.
“May we request the Iloilo City Government and Bacolod City Government to reconsider its intent to hold travel from Bacolod to Iloilo and vice versa,” read part of the joint statement issued by the RTF and Regional Inter-Agency Task Force.
Atty. Roy Villa, spokesperson of the RTF, called for an emergency meeting with various government officials and concerned local chief executives to assess the “root” of renewed travel restrictions.
“Gin-eksplikar sang DOH-6 ang positive cases didto sa Negros and diri sa Iloilo kalabanan from outside. In fact, mas mataas pa gani ang local cases sa Iloilo sang sa Negros,” Villa said.
Based on DOH-6’s July 21 data, Negros Occidental has 272 confirmed COVID-19 cases (32 local and 240 repatriates) while Bacolod City has 92 (27 local and 65 repatriates).
On the other hand, virus infections in Iloilo City stand at 98 (50 local and 48 repatriates) while Iloilo province at 260 (67 local and 193 repatriates.)
“Manageable ang aton cases,” Villa reiterated.
“[Sa cases sang mga] LSIs (locally stranded individuals) dapat mag-adapt sang regulatory measures ang aton nga mga LGUs,” he added.
On July 6 during the meeting of the Western Visayas inter-agency task force on COVID-19, provincial governors of Iloilo, Antique, Capiz, Negros Occidental, and Aklan agreed to relax their respective border controls.
Western Visayas remains under “medium risk” modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) at least until the end of the month.
Under “medium risk” MGCQ, strict local action is to be implemented include zoning, localized community quarantine, strict enforcement or minimum health standards, and scale up of health systems./PN
