By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – The National Inter-Agency Task Force on the management of emerging infectious diseases has approved the request of the Western Visayas IATF to suspend the repatriation of locally stranded individuals (LSI) and returning Overseas Filipinos (ROF) to the province of Negros Occidental, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City.
The two-week suspension is stipulated in Memorandum Circular No. 3 which took effect Aug 8, 2020.
Defense Secretary and NIATF chair Delfin Lorenzana signed the circular.
Earlier, the Regional IATF, through Resolution No. 28 dated Aug 7, 2020, requested a 14-day moratorium on repatriations while the region tries to stem the surge in COVID-19 cases both among repatriates and local communities.
Earlier, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia appealed for the same moratorium which the regional task force endorsed to the NIATF.
The endorsement was signed by Western Visayas RIATF chair Juan Jovian Ingeniero, who is also the regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Western Visayas RTF chair Jose Roberto Nuñez, who is also regional director of the Office of Civil Defense-Department of National Defense (OCC-DND-6).
The mayor also requested the NIATF to require airline and shipping companies to provide data of repatriated LSIs and OFWs to the receiving LGUs at least two days before the arrival.
“If this is approved, it will be a reprieve for our health workers and frontliners after working non-stop for months. And if we lengthen our curfew hours and strictly impose our health protocols in addition, we will have a better chance of slowing down the COVID-19 spread,” he added.
The proposed date for the start of the moratorium is from Aug 8 to Aug 21 per RIATF Resolution No. 28.
The proposed moratorium is anchored on the spike of the number of COVID cases in the LGUs since the arrival of returning residents, as well as the limited resources and capacity of LGUs to quarantine them.
The Department of Health (DOH) Western Visayas imposes no objection on the requests, the resolution stated.
Leonardia also wrote Nuñez on Aug 5 requesting the RIATF’s intercession with the NIATF in the city’s request for the moratorium.
The mayor also communicated to Galvez on the same day (August 5) appealing for support on the city’s request with the Department of Education (DepED) to allow the city to continually use public schools as quarantine centers as may be needed amid the pandemic.
The mayor also appealed to Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac on Aug 3 for a moratorium on the repatriations of ROFs.
On July 13, Leonardia addressed to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, chair of the National IATF, and co-chair Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles the appeal for a controlled number of passengers when commercial flights and sea travel resume.
