ROXAS City – The requests of the municipalities Dumalag and Panitan in Capiz province for the suspension of the arrival of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) have been approved by the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF).
For Dumalag, the suspension will be from Dec. 5, 2020 to Jan. 5, 2021 while in Panitan, it will be from Dec. 9, 2020 to Jan. 4, 2021.
The temporary suspension order was contained in RAITF Resolution No. 75 dated Nov. 24, 2020.
The local government units (LGUs) of both towns also requested for the suspension of the arrival of Returning Overseas Filipino (ROFs) but the regional task force has yet to decide.
In seeking the suspension, the Dumalag and Panitan LGUs stressed that their exhausted healthcare workers and other frontliners needed a “time-out”.
Panitan’s Mayor Katherine Belo also said the temporary suspension of the LSIs’ return will give the town enough time to improve the municipal quarantine facility and rehabilitate the service vehicles being used to transport LSIs.
Despite the suspension, however, Belo said the town will maintain its “on-call system” for COVID-19 emergencies.
For his part, Dumalag’s Mayor Amado Eriberto Castro Jr. said their healthcare workers and other frontliners have been working for seven months straight, thus they needed a break to recharge.
Earlier, the RIATF granted the request of Tapaz, Capiz for the suspension of the LSIs’ return for a month – from Dec. 5, 2020 to Jan. 5, 2021./PN
