BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental is adamant in requiring travelers bound for this city an S-PaSS registration.
According to Gov. Eugenio Lacson, even airline companies appreciated the use of S-PaSS because they would no longer validate or authenticate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine card and certificates, or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
After receiving word that the city resumed processing S-PaSS registrations, Lacson said he would put the issue to rest.
“What is important is that the provincial government recognizes that our status has gone down to Alert Level 2, both the city and the province. Because of that, the provincial government has allowed an increase in flights from the previous six flights a week to 21 flights a week,” Lacson said.
He added the province is “very much willing” to take responsibility for approving the S-PaSS registration for Bacolod-bound passengers.
Lacson said they would only lift the S-PaSS requirement once the World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic over.
On Monday, officials from the provincial government and the city government engaged in a verbal spat after Bacolod lifted the S-PaSS requirement for city-bound passengers at the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
The capitol questioned the legality of the executive order. Under an Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases resolution, travelers cannot disregard the protocols of local government units they are passing through.
This means even if a traveler is bound for Bacolod, those arriving via the Bacolod-Silay Airport are still required to submit their documents via the S-PaSS system, as the airport is in Silay City and is therefore under the jurisdiction of the provincial government./PN
