ACTING Malay Mayor Frolibar Bautista has signed an order suspending the entry into the municipality and Boracay Island of all persons with history of travel from China, Hong Kong and Macau in the past 14 days.
Executive Order (EO) 04 series of 2020, signed last February 6, 2020, states that any person, regardless of nationality, who will be identified to have a history of travel to China, Hong Kong, and Macau for the past 14 days upon arrival at the border of Malay will be banned entry.
These include all overseas Filipino workers.
The EO also stated that different border patrol checkpoints will be deployed to all entry points of the municipality to ensure that all persons, regardless of nationality, will be thoroughly checked for their travel history.
The following borders are identified:
* By land, through the Nabas-Malay boundary, Buruanga-Malay boundary, and a bypass road in Sitio Bacolad in Barangay Caticlan, which exits to the Municipality of Nabas
* By sea, which is primarily traversed by the Roll-On, Roll-Off ferries from Batangas Port and Port of Roxas in the province of Oriental Mindoro to the Caticlan Jetty Port, Malay, Aklan
* By air, either through the Godofredo P. Ramos Airport in Barangay Caticlan, whose arrivals area is located in Nabas; or the Kalibo International Airport in Kalibo, Aklan, which will all diverge into the Nabas-Malay boundary in Aklan West Road
Under the EO, border patrols are composed of Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Amy, Municipal Health Office, Municipal Tourism Office, Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Quarantine, Philippine Coast Guard, PNP Maritime, barangay officials/tanods and the Municipal Auxiliary Police.
It also said that all persons who will be denied entry shall get off their vehicle immediately upon request by the border patrol. If all persons conveyed by a passenger vehicle are denied entry, the vehicle must turn back from the boundary and immediately return to their point of origin.
It is advised that all visitors should prepare their identification cards of passports as they reach the border of Malay for faster processing.
The order was made as precautionary measure to ensure that Malay will remain free from the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
It was signed on the basis that the Malay Inter-Agency Task Force Against 2019 Novel Coronavirus has passed the Task Force Resolution 2020-001, which requests for the temporary ban. (SunStar Philippines)