- MITCH M. LIPA
The S-PaSS fiasco has been resolved after Department of the Interior and Local Government 6 regional director, Juan Jovian Engeniero, issued an opinion that its use is stipulated in the national Inter-Agency Task Force guidelines, Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.
Capitol posted on its Facebook page the statement of Engeniero, who is also the chairperson of the regional IATF on the S-PaSS issue via RMN DYHB.
Engeniero said: “As to the S-PaSS issue, we have responded to the letter of Bacolod City on this. We have provided them the policy direction towards the use of S-PaSS based on the existing IATF Resolution.
“In as far as the RIATF is concerned, we are in abeyance to the policy set by the IATF on the use of S-PaSS, in which the LGUs have the means to set depending on their travel restriction. This remains as our basis in guiding our LGUs in crafting their local guidelines.
“We are cognizant of the intention of Bacolod City to ease the travel requirements for those going there but there are means to do this while in line with the policy set by the national government. Through this, we hope to avoid conflict in the implementation of these policies among and within the LGUs,” Engeniero said.
Meanwhile, Diaz said it was clear that it was not the province that brought hassle and inconvenience to airline passengers bound for the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
The different airline companies also provided assistance desks at the airport in Manila for passengers applying for S-PaSS, for fast and easy travel.
Diaz said that since Bacolod resumed approving the S-PaSS applications of travellers bound for the city, via the airport in Silay, passengers have other options of applying for a pass-through permit that can be approved easily.
He said the fiasco was only created by Bacolod.
“The province will only improve and will not scrap something that is effective for the safety kag wala angle sang politika,” Diaz said.
The Provincial Administrator’s Office, meanwhile, said it did not approve the S-PaSS application of Atty. John Orola, dated Nov. 25, for wrong information after “Silay Airport” was written in the barangay address column in the registration.
Orola was in Manila for the conference of the PDP Laban-Cusi wing, and was supposed to travel back to Bacolod. He said he had no idea that one of his staff wrote such address in the application.
He said he “has no knowledge of the issue of S-PaSS” between Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.
His staff informed this reporter that she was the one who filled up the S-PaSS application of Orola and only followed the instruction from an airline company on what address to write.
She already coordinated with the city government and it approved the application. — MML
