TOURISTS and holiday makers can now take a Covid-19 saliva test, instead of the nasal swab RT-PCR test, for entry into Boracay Island.
The quicker and less expensive test method was approved in Thursday’s meeting of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF), chaired by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, who was on the island for the meeting. The saliva test, however, must be taken only at medical facilities and establishments approved by the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, said Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, who attended the meeting via Zoom.
For now, only the Philippine Red Cross is accredited by DOH to administer the saliva test. But Romulo Puyat told the BusinessMirror, she will propose to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to expand the number of accredited medical facilitates “to include the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center.”
The BIATF also approved a resolution to extend its term of office “until the BIDA (Boracay Industry Development Authority) is passed,” said Interior Undersecretary Epimaco V. Densing III in a separate Viber message. The resolution will be submitted to President Duterte for his approval, Densing added.
The House of Representatives is currently deliberating an unnumbered substitute bill creating BIDA as a government-owned and-controlled corporation (GOCC), which many island stakeholders have opposed.
In the Senate, there are several Senate bills also proposing to set up a Bida but with ordinary regulatory powers. Several multi-sectoral groups in Boracay have opposed the House’s Bida-as-a-GOCC bill, because it duplicated functions of many government agencies. Even the Department of Finance took issue with said House bill for creating an unnecessary agency that will give fiscal incentives that government is now truing to rationalize. (See, “More groups nix House’s Boracay GOCC plan,” in the BusinessMirror, March 12, 2021.)
Densing informally met with some of the multi-sectoral groups on Wednesday and said, “Kakampi namin sila [BIATF supports them].”
“As the fate of the BIDA bill lies in the hands of our legislators and to the wisdom of our President, let us give special attention nonetheless to its creation as a regulatory agency. Bottom line, the main concern of this task force is to ensure the sustained protection of the island and its environment, so then we may leave it in a pristine state for the next generation. Then thus, after them, let it be our legacy. My dear colleagues I remain in my stand to ensure that profit will no longer lord over environmental protection,” said Cimatu in his opening remarks.
Minors allowed to fly
Romulo Puyat, meanwhile, also recommended to the IATF that persons below 15 and above 65 years old traveling from Manila to Boracay should not be restricted from going to the airport and flying since Boracay is under Modified General Community Quarantine, as long as the passenger has a valid plane ticket.
On Wednesday National Task Force (NTF) spokesman Retired General Restituto Padilla backtracked on his earlier announcement of a ban on minors from traveling. The DOT chief clarified the supposed ban after she received messages from anxious friends and netizens who had already booked vacations with their children this Holy Week.
Padilla’s text message to her reads: “Just a clarification. I stand corrected. The NTF allows minors to travel with their families point to point. The only restriction is their movement within Metro Manila, especially to malls and crowded areas consistent with the announcement of the MMDA [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority]. Thank you! They may also avail of domestic air travel with their families especially during the season of lent and their academic break.”
Even Pasay City Mayor Imelda Calixto said in her latest Executive Order ICR 34 dated March 16, 2021, amending earlier prescribed GCQ guidelines: “Persons younger or older than the permitted ages, may leave home only for indispensable reasons, specifically…[iii] for purposes of air/sea travel as shown on pre-booked tickets/…” The Ninoy Aquino International Airport is in Pasay.
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