ILOILO City – Local chief executives in Western Visayas requested for a moratorium on the movement of non-essential travelers and Authorized Persons Outside of Residence (APORs) to and from the islands of Panay and Negros for seven days to contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas said the members of the Joint Regional Inter-Agency Task Force and the Regional Task Force (RIATF-RTF) would be endorsing the request to the National IATF and NTF for approval.
The request was actually led by Treñas and was joined by the province of Iloilo and concurred by Negros Occidental and all the other government agencies in a recent meeting. It was eventually unanimously approved.
The moratorium would exempt APORS in the healthcare sector, humanitarian workers and uniformed personnel.
Should the request be approved, the IATF-NTF shall provide a two-day lead time for the moratorium to be announced and disseminated to affected travelers to be made aware of, so as not to inconvenience the operations of businesses and other relevant activities in both islands.
Meanwhile, Christian Nagaynay, head secretariat of the RIATF, said the request was prompted by the observation of the Iloilo City COVID Team.
“There has been an increase in their recorded cases and they wanted to contain it. Since they acknowledged that there have been frequent trips from Iloilo City to Bacolod with people from Iloilo City moving to Bacolod City and vice versa,” Nagaynay said in an interview with Philippine News Agency.
He added that while it was Iloilo City that made the request, the RIATF submitted a resolution to the national IATF, which included the movement from Panay Island to Negros to also be suspended.
The RIATF is also eyeing to control mobility although the rate of cases in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City is already decreasing.
“We just don’t want to be complacent. We put together our actions to be taken by all provinces so that it will not be exclusive only to a single LGU like Iloilo City,” Nagaynay said.(with PNA/PN)