Leonardia to issue new travel policy

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Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia is set to issue a new policy that would ease the travel requirements of those coming from Panay.

Emergency Operations Center deputy director for Data Analytics, Dr. Chris Sorongon, said they discussed Saturday evening with Leonardia the possibility that passengers coming from Iloilo can just present their full vaccination card, instead of a negative RT-PCR result.

Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia during the Oct. 9 virtual meeting with the Emergency Operations Center Task Force and local oxygen supplier. | City PIO photo

Sorongon said those who received the first dose and unvaccinated travelers to Bacolod will still be required to present negative RT-PCR result from their LGU of origin.

There was also a suggestion that aside from the vaccination card, passengers from Iloilo would also be required to present a negative antigen test result.

All these have not been finally decided, Sorongon stressed, adding that the executive order of Leonardia is still being reviewed by the City Legal and the City Administrator’s Office.

Fast-craft operator and Weesam Express consultant, Frank Carbon, meanwhile, said he welcomes any new travel policy that would ease the requirements.

He said they will wait for the EO before the operators will decide if fast-craft trips can be resumed.

Carbon, who is also the executive officer of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the fast craft industry in both Negros and Iloilo logged about P100 million in revenue loss for more than two months that sea travel has been suspended.

They stopped operating mid-August when Iloilo tightened its travel policy and Bacolod followed suit, after a surge in COVID cases in the two highly-urbanized cities in Western Visayas. – MML