- MITCH M. LIPA
The dispute on the use of the S-PaSS (Safe, Swift and Smart Passage) continues among Bacolod City and Negros Occidental officials.
As the province stands firm in its decision to require an S-PaSS registration among airline passengers bound for the Bacolod-Silay Airport, the City has been telling passengers that they are making travel easy, that’s why such requirement had already been removed.
Provincial Administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, said it’s the city officials who abandoned their responsibility of approving the S-PaSS for Bacolod residents because no one will approve it for them.
Diaz added that the Alert Level 2 category is only temporary and the province is following the guidelines of the National Inter-Agency Task Force that do not do away with the S-PaSS, that is why, in the executive order of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, it states that all incoming passengers by land, sea, and air must comply with it.
The S-PaSS will be useful in contact tracing purposes for the safety of all passengers and residents of the province and Bacolod City, that is why the Capitol stands firm in implementing the travel policy, Diaz said.
But Bacolod Emergency Operations Center executive director Em Ang said “there is nothing to abandon since it does not exist anymore”. She said that they have been explaining to the passengers that, as far as Bacolod is concerned, the S-PaSS is not required anymore, only the vaccination card.
Ang added that they received a lot of complaints from passengers in Manila, saying the S-PaSS requirement has caused inconvenience to them. They said they cannot board their scheduled flights and they needed to rebook their tickets and incurred more expenses; their hotel bookings in Bacolod were also affected, she added.
Diaz said Ang only has a volunteer status as EOC executive director and has no official authority to speak for the city government. But the former city administrator answered that perhaps, he could ask the mayor of Bacolod about her appointment.
She said Bacolod was informed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government 6 that their legal department is attending to their letter and will issue its stand on the S-PaSS issue.
Diaz said they will check if the eventual decision of the DILG will not supersede the rules set by the national IATF. — MML
