‘Don’t go to Tabuelan Port in Cebu’

The Negros Occidental provincial government has advised its residents still stranded in the neighboring island of Cebu to stay put in places where they are staying if they have not yet received a travel schedule.

“Please refrain from going or proceeding to the Port of Tabuelan without any advice from your respective local government units (LGUs) or the Province of Negros Occidental,” the Capitol said in an advisory.

Charina Magallanes-Tan, spokesperson of the Provincial Incident Management Team for Covid-19, said they have yet to determine the exact number of the remaining locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) in Cebu.

Comments of some LSIs in Cebu posted on the province’s Facebook page showed many of them have been waiting to travel back to the province for months now, but their trips have not pushed through for various reasons.

Some 200 Negrenses are reportedly now in the port of Tabuelan town waiting for the opportunity to travel home to Negros Occidental.

The last batch of LSIs from Cebu assisted by the provincial government arrived via Escalante City on August 9.

The group, comprised of 91 Negrenses, including three children, were brought to the Cadiz Healing Facility, where they are undergoing the mandatory quarantine period before they are sent home to their respective towns and cities.

In the last week of June, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson suspended the entry of LSIs from Cebu after all quarantine facilities in Negros Occidental have been occupied and to avoid more positive cases coming from Cebu.

At that time, almost 50 percent of the Covid-19 patients in the province were LSIs from Cebu.

In Executive Order 20-26 issued on June 15, Lacson directed Negrenses coming from Cebu to enter the province only through the Danao Port in Escalante City while the admission of LSIs will depend on the capacity of the isolation facility in Cadiz City.

As of August 12, data released by the provincial government showed that out of the 715 confirmed cases in Negros Occidental, 102 are LSIs who traveled from Cebu.

COAST WATCH
Meanwhile, San Carlos City, the northernmost locality of Negros Occidental, is continually securing its coastal areas from LSIs who want to illegally enter the province. The city is located just across Cebu province.

Last month, personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard intercepted six LSIs who traveled on a motorboat and arrived in Barangay Buluangan without proper documentation.

Aside from Escalante, San Carlos is also the main entry point to Negros Occidental of travelers who board ferries from Toledo City in Cebu.*