Tagbilaran City shuts beaches to prevent spread of COVID-19

Tagbilaran Bay off Tagbilaran City. (Leo Udtohan/Inquirer Visayas)

TAGBILARAN CITY – To prevent the spread of COVID-19, beaches in this city were shut on Easter Sunday.

In its memorandum, the Tagbilaran Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease did not allow recreational activities at the beaches or coastal areas.

“This Holy Week is the best time to think and to reflect on how we can unite as a people to fight the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, at the same time keep ourselves healthy and safe,” it said.

Barangay officials, village patrolmen, and personnel of Bantay Dagat inspected the coastal areas to make sure no one sneaked into the beaches.

Ester Honculada, 39, a resident of Barangay Dampas, went to Caingget Beach, a popular public beach in Barangay Booy on Sunday morning for a picnic.

But she and her family were barred at the entrance by a village patrolman.

“It’s our (family) tradition to go on picnics every Easter Sunday,” said Honculada.

Celsa Ramo, for her part, opted not to display seafood at the Caingget Beach since no one was coming to the beach.

“It is prohibited for now. We have to follow the rules,” she said.

Going to beaches for a family picnic is a regular tradition for Filipinos during Easter Sunday. But due to COVID-19, local government units prohibited the tradition to avoid mass gathering.

/MUF