ROXAS CITY—Mayor Ronnie Dadivas’ request for a 14-day moratorium on the Hatid Probinsya program, or repatriation of Capiznons into the Roxas City has been granted by the Western Visayas Regional Interagency Task Force (WVRIATF).
Said request covers the repatriation of locally stranded individuals (LSI), Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROF).
It also asks for the cancellation or suspension of all scheduled commercial flights of Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific and sea travels in the coming days from the National Capital Region to Roxas City and vice-versa.
Dadivas’s August 25 letter was addressed to Regional Director of the Office of Civil Defense Jose Roberto Nuñez and Department of the Interior and Local Government Region VI Dir. Juan Ingeniero, WVRIATF chairpersons.
According to Dadivas, the request was made due to the “limited resources and capacity of the City Government to quarantine them.”
The recent rise of local transmission in the city has also led the city government to put certain areas under Enhanced Community Quarantine and required them to do contact tracing and testing of all high-risk contacts.
An overflow of arrivals beyond what the quarantine facilities can accommodate could pose health risks, he added.
The moratorium also allows the repatriates to finish their stay and for the government to prepare the quarantine facilities for the next batches.
The medical frontliners likewise needed a break, he said.
Dadivas said that the overflow “will definitely” cause backlogs in testing activities since the repatriates would have to undergo the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
In a Facebook post, Capiz Provincial Administrator Edwin Monares said that the request only covers Roxas City and not the 16 municipalities of Capiz. (Ralph John Mijares)
COVID-19 WARRIORS
Roxas City—The City Hall appointed anti-Covid enforcers in the barangays to enforce public health protocols like physical distancing, wearing of facemasks and curfew for senior citizens and minors. Photo shows their recent operation in Barangay Lawaan here. (City Hall Photo)
