BACOLOD CITY –– “Modified” commercial flights from Manila will start flying to Negros Occidental starting July 6.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Philippine Airlines (PAL), Cebu Pacific, and AirAsia will each fly in 1,000 passengers a week.
He said they would be called “modified” commercial flights because the airlines have to submit the names of the incoming passengers and their addresses to the provincial government.
The provincial government, he said, would continue to conduct COVID-19 Reverse transcription-polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests on all incoming passengers “until Manila is healed.”
In a meeting with representatives of the three airlines on Friday, Diaz said they also agreed that from June 22 to July 5, they would allow only one sweeper flight from Manila to land at the Bacolod-Silay Airport per day.
PAL will be flying in on Mondays and Fridays, Cebu Pacific on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and AirAsia on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The PAL flights are set on June 22, 26, and 29 and July 3, Cebu Pacific on June 23, 25, and 30 and July 2, and AirAsia on June 24 and 27, and July 1 and 4.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson on Friday sent a letter to President Duterte through Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases chairman, seeking permission for the sweeper flights.
He said thousands of Negrenses have been stranded in different parts of Luzon since March 15, most of them jobless.
Negrense LSIs in Manila are required to have medical certificates and travel passes from the Philippine National Police.
“In line with the desire of the national government to decongest Metro Manila, we also want to bring our constituents home. Thus we would like to appeal to your office that the Negrenses in our sweeper flights with incomplete requirements be allowed to take their trip back home,” said Lacson in his letter.
Diaz said if the province already saturated the demand for Negrenses from Manila to return home, they would consider allowing flights from Cebu.
“We will see on July 1 if we can start serving flights from Cebu. We cannot do Manila and Cebu simultaneously,” he said.
The provincial government quarantine facility in Cadiz City for incoming passengers from Cebu can accommodate only 100 at a time.
“It will depend on how many can be accommodated at a certain time and how fast we can release them based on the results of their RT-PCR tests,” he said.
Diaz said LSIs from Cebu would not be released until their test results are out.
Meanwhile, the provincial government is consolidating the list of Negrense LSIs in Cebu so it could also arrange for their return by sea, said Provincial Tourism Officer Jennylind Cordero.
The LSIs need to sign up with their local governments or with the Negros Occidental Tourism Division through its Facebook page, so they can be issued Certificates of Acceptance for their return.
On Thursday, 213 Negrense LSIs arrived in Escalante City from Tabuelan town in Cebu.