ILOILO City – People can still freely go in and out of the province of Antique despite the surge in cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) there.
The provincial government’s request for a border restriction has been denied by the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The curb will supposedly take effect today, April 5, until April 19, according to Gov. Rhodora Cadiao.
In an interview with Panay News, Cadiao said the taskforce’s decision was confirmed through Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III.
Why was the request rejected?
“According to Undersecretary Densing, ECQ to ECQ lang daw ‘yan (applicable). Hindi pwedeng MGCQ to MGCQ,” Cadiao said, referring to the enhanced community quarantine and modified general community quarantine statuses of given areas.
Antique and the rest of Western Visayas are currently under MGCQ.
Cadiao said they respect the IATF’s decision.
However, the governor is appealing to all her constituents to stay home unless there’s an emergency or necessary transaction to do to avoid contracting COVID-19.
What would have been the scenario if the IATF approved the request?
Cadiao would have temporarily banned the entry of people except for those authorized person outside residence (APOR) and the like.
“We have to identify if ang trip nila to Iloilo is really important. Kapag hindi, they are not allowed to go out. Only APOR, emergency cases, bakal sang bulong and follow-up sa offices sang national agency ang allowed nga makagwa sa province,” said Cadiao.
Ilonggos working in Antique can enter the province only if they are able to present their company identification cards at the border checkpoints. The same goes to Antiqueños working in Iloilo and neighboring provinces.
Cadiao would have also appealed to all persons working in Antique if they could either have a “work from home” setup or stay in Antique for two weeks.
As of this writing, Antique had 233 total confirmed coronavirus cases – 104 were active, 123 recovered and six deaths.
The continuous operations of cockpits in the province particularly in San Jose and Sibalom towns have been the “super spreader” of the virus.
Meanwhile, there will be no inbound travel via air and seaports in Antique until April 10, 2021. But outbound travels (sweeper flights and the like) are allowed.
