ILOILO City – Mayor Jerry Treñas and businessmen here look forward to the resumption of international flights at the Iloilo Airport. But they don’t want to throw caution to the wind.
“Amat-amat lang siguro (Let’s do it gradually),” said Treñas.
The Iloilo Airport in Cabatuan, Iloilo used to service direct flights from and to Singapore and Hong Kong. But when the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic struck beginning March 2020, it stopped.
Now, after over two years of pandemic-induced travel restrictions, should the Iloilo Airport resume servicing international flights?
Treñas said he would rather first make sure that all eligible Ilonggos are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Iloilo Local Economic Development Foundation, Inc. (ILED) chairperson Terence Uygongco said the time has come to assess if resuming international flights could be done safely.
There should be “maximum precaution”, he stressed, to make sure that travelers from abroad do not bring viruses such as those causing monkeypox – a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.
The resumption of direct international flights at the Iloilo Airport, said Uygongco, would greatly benefit, among others, the returning overseas Western Visayas workers.
They need not drop by Metro Manila on their way home, thereby saving them time and money, he said.
For its part, the Iloilo Business Club (IBC) said the resumption of international flights would help energize the local economy.
“The sooner we get back to normalcy, the better. The fear of the virus, like the monkeypox now, if unchecked, may paralyze us,” it warned in a statement.
But IBC pressed for consultations with government experts, especially from the Department of Health and the Department of Tourism, among others, to come up with safety protocols.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. of Iloilo is cautious about the resumption of international flights at the Iloilo Airport, citing the threat of not COVID-19 but of monkeypox.
Defensor wants monkeypox health protocols set first before agreeing to the Iloilo Airport resuming servicing international flights.
Treñas is less worried about monkeypox, which experts say is not as virulent as COVID-19.
“Kag ang DOH nagapamakal naman vaccine for monkeypox,” he added.
As for COVID-19, the mayor is hopeful that it would be scaled back – from a pandemic to becoming endemic.
“Amat-amat na ta pakadto siguro nga ma-endemic na ‘ni. Basta importante may vaccination,” said Treñas.
Independent monitoring group OCTA Research recently reported that the new COVID-19 infections in the city and province of Iloilo are declining.
According to OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David, the number of people infected by one case in Iloilo City went down from 1.05 on July 31 to 0.92 on Aug. 7.
OCTA also reported a -18 percent one-week growth rate of COVID-19 cases in the city.
There is an expectation that the Iloilo Airport will reopen to international flights. That’s because just this June as COVID-19 infections started dropping and more people got vaccinated, international flights – mainly from South Korea – resumed at the Kalibo International Airport in Kalibo, Aklan, the international gateway to the world-famous Boracay Island./PN
