Cebu exec ‘surrenders’ to Palace decision on uniform travel protocols
CEBU CITY—The author of the swabupon-arrival provincial ordinance for returning Cebuanos from abroad was not surprised by Malacañang’s announcement that all local governments, including Cebu, should follow the uniform health protocols issued by the national pandemic task force. “I already expected that response from Malacañang,” said Provincial Board Member John Ismael Borgonia of Cebu’s Third District. “Personally, I am surrendering on this issue and would like to move on and move forward to other pressing matters in the province that need our preferential attention,” he added. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. on Thursday said the guidelines of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to impose the mandatory 14-day quarantine and the swab testing on the seventh day upon arrival of Filipinos from abroad should remain as the standard protocol. “Well, for now, the decision of (President Duterte) is that all should follow one protocol: 10 days under facility quarantine, test on the seventh day using RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) and, if negative, will be released and the last four days of quarantine will be at home,” Roque said in a media interview.
Appeal rejected
The announcement was made just days after Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia met with and appealed to the IATF officials in a meeting on June 29 at the Cebu capitol to allow a compromise and to apply the province’s protocol to arriving Cebuanos from abroad. Garcia has not been available for comment on Malacañang’s decision. Under the Cebu provincial ordinance and an executive order issued by Garcia, returning Filipinos from abroad who will test negative during their upon-arrival RT-PCR test at the airport can proceed to their hometowns or destinations and will again be tested on the seventh day through their respective local governments. The IATF, on the other hand, requires a hotel-based quarantine for 10 days, with the swab test to be taken on the seventh day. Even if the returning Filipinos will test negative for COVID-19, they have to follow the four-day quarantine at home.
‘Trampled’ autonomy
Borgonia said there was nothing much the province could do at this point if Malacañang insisted on implementing the national protocols for arriving Filipinos from abroad. “It’s true that our ordinance and local autonomy were trampled upon. (But) as a member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, I cannot do anything with regard to the implementation of the ordinance,” he said. Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, during the meeting with Cebu officials, has stressed that a “uniformed COVID-19 policy” was the better protocol, an opinion shared by IATF chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. “It’s like a military operation. The rules of engagement should be followed. The rules of engagement should be the same,” Galvez said. On June 21, Cebuano lawyers Clarence Paul Oaminal and Valentino Bacalso filed a petition in court to declare the IATF’s protocols for returning Cebuanos from abroad as “ineffective and inapplicable” in Cebu. The case is still pending in a court here.