BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAG
BACOLOD City – The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) raised questions over an advisory allegedly from the Philippine Airlines (PAL) instructing Bacolod-bound passengers to use Barangay Airport and Silay City when registering with the S-PaSS travel management system.
“Is this a joke?” asked EOC executive director, Em Ang.
Ang said instead of ridding some inconvenience, they were instructing Bacolod residents to “misdeclare their personal information in an official government platform.”
According to Negros Occidental’s provincial administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, S-PaSS is used as a “primary contact tracing system.”
“How is this new policy going to help if people fill in a fake address?” Ang asked.
PAL could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Meanwhile, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson appealed to Bacolod officials to respect the province’s decision to retain the S-PaSS requirement for travelers arriving at the Bacolod-Silay Airport.
Lacson stressed that the city has “no jurisdiction” over the regulations being imposed at the airport.
The governor pointed out that they do not interfere with the protocols being set at the Bredco and Banago ports.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia, on the other hand, wrote Director Juan Jovian Ingeniero of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Region 6, asking for clarification over the S-PaSS registration.
The mayor pointed out a growing number of complaints about Bacolod-bound residents unable to secure their plane reservations on time as airline companies are still requiring them of S-PaSS.
Leonardia said the provincial government cannot impose its own executive order on Bacolod-bound travelers as the Bacolod-Silay Airport is regulated by the national government.
Earlier this week, Lacson said the S-PaSS is important because airline companies would no longer validate the traveler’s vaccine card and certificate or the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result.
“The [airline companies] are appreciating that; it is easier for them,” Lacson said.
He said the provincial government would only lift the S-PaSS requirement once the World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic over./PN