- MITCH M. LIPA
The provincial government of Negros Occidental is standing firm in requiring airline passengers to present their S-PaSS registration as one requirement before boarding a flight to the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
Provincial Administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, said that as per the national Inter-Agency Task Force, the S-PaSS is a mode by which travellers upload all documentations for proper recording.
“It is a way to verify the requirements of vaccination cards or negative RT-PCR, without which we will be delegating the checking of these documents to airport and airline personnel, which is not fair,” he added.
He said the province’s requirement of an S-PaSS has legal basis.
In the executive order of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, the S-PaSS will be checked upon arrival at the ports of entry, regardless of the destination LGU.
The EO of the province is in harmony with Resolution 101 of the NIATF which does not lift the use of S-PaSS, Diaz said.
The EO of Lacson was issued ahead of the EO released by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, which states that Bacolod no longer requires an S-PaSS from travellers, by land, sea, or air.
The Bacolod-Silay Airport is located in Silay City, which is one of the component cities of Negros Occidental.
Diaz said travelling without restrictions will create a false sense of security, and no longer requiring an S-PaSS will compromise safety.
Diaz, who also heads the Emergency Operations Center of Negros Occidental, reminded residents that the Alert Level 2 category, to which Bacolod and Negros are under until the end of November, is temporary and may change anytime, depending on the number of new cases.
“It is not wise for us to let our guard down and allow an unimpeded travel without protocols,” he stressed.
The administrator said he believes that the province is in a better position about its rules as part of strategies to contain the spread of the coronavirus. “Under the NIATF rules, if travellers go to different places, they cannot disregard the protocols of the LGUs that they pass through; they have to comply.”
Since the Bacolod LGU no longer requires the S-PaSS, the province is willing to assist those bound for the city so that their S-PaSS applications can be processed without delays.
Diaz said the announcement by some Bacolod officials that S-PaSS is no longer needed only misleads people on the right system of travel at this time when everything is not yet normal.
Diaz also said that rather than blaming the province for the confusion, the passengers should be thankful to the province for increasing the flights, at one flight per airline per day, without sacrificing the health requirements. The additional flights resulted in lower airfares, he added. — MML
