West Visayas, Lanao Sur bar entry of LSIs

NO FREEDOM A group of overseas Filipino workers who returned in August have to stay at the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand in Iloilo City due to lack of quarantine facilities. —IAN PAUL CORDERO/CONTRIBUTOR

CEBU CITY — Locally stranded individuals (LSIs) bound for Western Visayas, Iligan City and Lanao del Sur province have to wait a bit.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has approved the requests of these localities to temporarily suspend the inbound travel of LSIs to help slow down the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

President Duterte on Sept. 7 placed Lanao del Sur and Bacolod City in Negros Occidental under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Sept. 8 to Sept. 30 upon the recommendation of the IATF.

Confusion

Iligan City was already under MECQ, but COVID-19 Task Force Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez asked that Bacolod be placed on the same status due to rising number of infections in the area.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government in Central Visayas advised LSIs bound for Western Visayas, Iligan and Lanao del Sur not to proceed to any port in Cebu to avoid being stranded.

But varying guidelines on returning overseas Filipino (ROFs) workers and residents to Western Visayas, however, were sowing confusion in the region.

The IATF suspended travel of LSIs to Western Visayas on Sept. 7. But the Western Visayas Regional Task Force Against COVID-19 and Regional Inter-Agency Task Force said the resolution only covers the cities of Bacolod and Roxas.

Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores issued a directive on Sept. 8 that the province was not accepting LSIs bound for Aklan.

The province is also prohibiting LSIs bound for other areas in Western Visayas to pass through Aklan.

Local government units (LGUs) in the region have appealed for the suspension of the transport of LSIs, citing overcapacity of quarantine facilities and exhaustion of front-line health and other workers.

Guidelines on the transport of ROFs also continue to be questioned by local chief executives who have been clamoring that facility-based quarantine of ROFs upon arrival in Western Visayas should still be required even if the ROFs have tested negative for COVID-19 and have undergone a 14-day quarantine in Manila or Cebu.

Mayors of Iloilo repeatedly pointed out that many ROFs who were supposed to have tested negative and had been quarantined in Manila or Cebu turned out to be positive for COVID-19.

No retesting

However, Western Visayas Interior Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero, chair of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force COVID-19, said in an online press conference on Tuesday that they would enforce the IATF guideline, issued on Aug. 19, that would not require retesting for ROFs who have tested negative in a real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and who have completed a 14-day quarantine prior to their arrival in their home provinces or region.

Those who tested negative but have not completed the 14-day quarantine will be required to complete their quarantine upon arrival at the LGU where they will be going home.

Administrative liability

Retesting will only be done if they exhibit symptoms of the disease, according to Resolution No. 35, issued on Sept. 7 by the RIATF and Regional Task Force COVID-19.

Ingeniero said LGUs who wanted to implement a mandatory 14-day quarantine for ROFs needed to submit a resolution that will be sent to the IATF for consideration.

He said LGUs that required quarantine for ROFs who had tested negative and had already undergone quarantine could be held administratively liable for failing to comply with the IATF policy.

Rizza Joy Mapa-Moldes, officer in charge of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Western Visayas, said LGUs could place ROFs under quarantine if this was requested by the ROFs.