LSIs still not allowed in Bacolod City while under MECQ

Locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) are still not allowed to enter Bacolod City while modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status remains in effect.

Only LSIs bound for Negros Occidental, along with Iloilo Province, Iloilo City, Guimaras, and Antique, are covered by the lifting of the temporary suspension of inbound travel for returning residents as stated in the Sept. 16 advisory of the Western Visayas Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) and the Regional Task Force (RTF) Covid-19.

Both bodies cited Resolution 71 dated Sept. 15 of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

“The moratorium is still in effect for returning residents of Bacolod City until the lifting of its MECQ status,” according to the directive signed by Interior and Local Government-6 OIC-Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero, chair of the RIATF, and Office of Civil Defense-6 Director Jose Roberto Nuñez, chair of the RTF.

The IATF-EID approved Resolution 69-A placing Bacolod under MECQ from Sept. 8 to 30 to contain local cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Moreover, the RIATF and the RTF advised the city government to “accept, allow, and process” returning residents and LSIs bound for other local government units (LGUs), who are not residents of Bacolod, in its ports of entry.

“Provided that these arrivals are properly coordinated to the receiving LGUs and complete documentary requirements are present as indicated in the previous issuances,” the regional advisory further said.

The RIATF and the RTF also advised LGUs, where there is a partial lifting of the moratorium to travel, to facilitate the acceptance, arrival, and other processes of LSIs and other returning residents after they have manifested the intention to accept them.

In Resolution 71, the IATF-EID approved the partial lifting of the temporary suspension of inbound travel by returning residents to Western Visayas. However, LSIs bound for Aklan and Capiz provinces are still prohibited to travel home as stated in Resolution 69 as well as those traveling to Bacolod, which is still under MECQ.*