BREAKING away from national government policy, the province of Aklan will continue to require those traveling to Boracay Island to submit a negative Covid-19 test result prior to entry.
In a news conference after the ceremonial vaccination of the island’s tourism workers on Wednesday, Governor Florencio Miraflores said, “We met with provincial IATF [Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] and we decided in the meantime, all arrivals should still present RT-PCR test results, until such time we have a system of validating vaccine cards.”
He explained that most vaccination cards issued by various vaccination sites are “generic,” and don’t have contact numbers of people with whom they can validate the status of the person’s vaccination. “In the case of RT-PCR test results, we are able to validate them within hours [of submission] with the laboratories,” he said.
The IATF on July 2 decided to lift the test-before-travel requirement for fully vaccinated individuals moving from one quarantine zone to a different quarantine zone. They only need to present their vaccination cards to local authorities. According to published reports, however, a number of local governors bucked the new policy, saying they were not consulted beforehand. On Wednesday night, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque said the IATF would review the policy.
For one, they raised concerns on the possibility of unscrupulous people presenting fake vaccination cards. Also, tourism leaders also cited medical experts who believe even vaccinated people can be Covid carriers and infect those who are unvaccinated. (See, “DOT chief: LGUs have final OK on tourists sans Covid testing,” in the BusinessMirror, July 5, 2021.)
DICT app in development
For her part, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said the Department of Information and Communications Technology is working on a system “using crypto-code,” where an individuals’ vaccination information will be uploaded into a national database.”
Hopefully this will be faster, universal, and it will be easier for Boracay [to validate vaccination cards].”
At the same news conference, National Task Force for Covid-19 (NTF) Deputy Chief Implementer Vivencio Dizon warned the traveling public against faking vaccine cards. “Tampering a vaccination card, which is an official public document, is a criminal act. If you get caught…you will be imprisoned and fined.”
An initial 3,000 tourism workers on Boracay, most of whom have been identified by the Malay municipal government, are being vaccinated in partnership with the Boracay Foundation Inc., Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Boracay, and the Compliance Association of Boracay.
Of initial beneficiaries, 2,178 work in accommodation establishments, 308 in restaurants, 140 in tourist transport, while 374 are tourism frontliners, which include tour guides, boatmen, e-trike drivers, airport and seaport frontliners, and aqua/water sports providers.
“I am extremely grateful to our NTF Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., our Testing Czar and Deputy Chief Implementer, Secretary Vince Dizon, and the rest of the NTF team, for making this possible. As promised by Sec. Vince, a continuous supply of the vaccine will come, until we will be able to finally vaccinate the whole Boracay and our dream of the travel bubble will finally be realized,” said Romulo Puyat in her speech before the commencement of the vaccination program.
“Understandably, among the top priorities for tourists traveling during this period are their health and safety. One of the ways we can ensure this is by getting our frontliners vaccinated as soon as possible, to give an extra layer of protection between them and our tourists,” she underscored.