By Joseph B.A. Marzan
More than 600 domestic and foreign tourists have been repatriated from the city and province of Iloilo City since the start of community quarantines (CQ) in the country, according to the Department of Tourism-Region 6 (DOT-6).
Community quarantines have been implemented by the local government units (LGU) throughout the country in response to the threat posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Both city and province had been under Enhanced CQ from March 20 to May 15, 2020.
Part of the ECQ executive orders by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor are the suspension of all public transport operations.
Prior to this, the Iloilo International Airport also suspended commercial operations since March 18 due to COVID-19.
As a result, many domestic and foreign tourists were stranded in the city and province.
Data by the DOT-6 indicated that as of May 13, 103 domestic and 568 foreign tourists have been sent home from the city and the province, for a combined total of 671.
The latest data also showed that 327 tourists have remained in the city and in the province, with 113 domestic and 214 foreign tourists.
The DOT-6 and LGUs had been arranging for the tourists’ transport, with the first sweeper flight from Iloilo to Manila on March 25.
Aside from this, the DOT also assisted in sweeper flights arranged by LGUs from Iloilo to either Manila or Cebu.
The DOT-6 has initiated nine flights and assisted 42 flights and trips through other transport modes.
Atty. Helen Catalbas, DOT-6 Regional Director, said that the agency has stopped initiating flights and all flights are now arranged by foreign embassies.
“DOT has no more initiated flights after May 2. All flights after that are organized by foreign embassies in the Philippines for their respective citizens and other accommodated nationalities,” Catalbas said.
CITY, PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS
The Iloilo City Tourism Office and the Iloilo Provincial Tourism Office have also been organizing tourist repatriations.
Iloilo City Tourism Officer Junel Ann Divinagracia said there may be another batch of repatriations by this week.
She added that the city is also organizing repatriations of Ilonggo tourists from other areas of the country.
“We’re organizing a Manila-Iloilo-Manila sweeper flight hopefully this week once the IATF gives us the GO signal. Voyages for stranded Ilonggos from Palawan and Bacolod are also being mounted,” Divinagracia said.
Gilbert Marin, Iloilo Provincial Tourism Officer, stated that the provincial government has also been assisting tourists from other provinces who are repatriated through the province.
“We have started facilitating these stranded local and foreign tourists since the first sweeper flights of [the DOT-6] where we also assisted 56 foreign tourists out of Dumangas who came from Negros Occidental,” Marin said.
