BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – “Not for now.” This was the unanimous decision of 31 local chief executives in Negros Occidental on the planned reopening of the province’s land borders shared with Negros Oriental.
Yesterday, mayors of cities and towns virtually conveyed their opposition to the proposal, according to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson.
They were concerned that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections on the other side of the island were higher, Lacson explained.
As of Jan. 12, Negros Oriental had 203 active cases while Negros Occidental had 170.
The governor attributed the recent increase of active cases in the province to the recently-concluded holiday celebrations.
It was in a letter to Lacson that Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo broached the possibility of opening the borders between the two Negros provinces.
Bimbo Miraflor, spokesperson of the Negros Oriental provincial government, said a meeting was thereafter scheduled between members of the Inter-Agency Task Force of the two provinces today in Mabinay, a municipality that shared borders with Negros Occidental’s Kabankalan City.
The agenda of the meeting was the formulation of protocols and procedures should the reopening of the borders happen.
However, with this latest development, Lacson said the provincial government will no longer be attending the meeting.
According to Miraflor, it is the business sector in Negros Oriental that is pushing for the reopening of the borders. On the other hand, he disclosed, Dumaguete City’s Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo is not keen on the idea.
Health sector stakeholders in the province have also expressed concern over the proposal as the province has limited quarantine facilities, he added.
Degamo, he explained, wants to re-open the borders but maintain that health protocols should take precedence.
Miraflor confirmed that there is already community transmission of COVID-19 in Oriental with at least five cases reported daily./PN
