BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Authorities caught two locally stranded individuals (LSI) who allegedly entered the town of Pontevedra in Negros Occidental illegally using their boat.
The Pontevedra police requested not to identify the two LSIs, although they confirmed that they were residents of the town’s Barangay Antipolo.
They traveled onboard a small boat from the town of Concepcion in Iloilo.
According to police investigators, they received a call from concerned residents in the town’s Barangay Miranda, reporting that they saw two unidentified men arriving by boat in a beach resort in the area on July 28.
When cops questioned the two LSIs, they presented an expired travel authority, police said.
The two LSIs were later brought to the town’s rural health unit while their boat was seized. They had their specimens collected for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) swab test.
The provincial government repeatedly announced that LSIs need to contact the focal person of their respective local government units to facilitate their travel into the province.
They are supposed to secure a medical certificate from a government physician and travel authority from the Philippine National Police before boarding a plane or vessel which will take them to the island.
In a related development, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson confirmed that an employee of the provincial capitol tested positive for COVID-19.
Lacson refused to identify which department was involved, although he affirmed to receiving the results of the tests yesterday afternoon.
The COVID-positive employee, according to the governor, was exposed to his mother who was later found infected with the viral illness.
Lacson said the employee had not reported to work since Thursday last week. Cleaning and disinfection procedures have been ramped-up, he added./PN
