A CHINESE cargo vessel was held and placed on quarantine off Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (Bredco) port in Bacolod City to prevent and control the spread the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Lieutenant Commander Jansen Benjamin, chief of Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)-Negros, said the M/V Bao Neng, from China, carrying 14.028 metric tons of cement arrived in Bredco Port on March 20.
He said the vessel, which was at the anchorage area of the port, has a total of 22 crews and they are not allowed to disembark at Bredco Port.
“Their quarantine period will end on March 28 and they will only be allowed to disembark the cement while their crews will stay inside the vessel,” he added.
Benjamin stressed that they strictly implemented the “no disembarkation” of the crews from the vessel.
“All the crews will be confined inside the vessel,” he said.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia earlier issued an Executive Order (EO) No. 12 modifying the Executive Order No.11 relative to the letter-directive received on March 6 from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to comply with Department of Health (DOH) order as a matter of national issuance of the national government and the oversight power of the Office of the President delegated to the DILG.
Section 1 of EO No. 12 stated that any vessel coming or arriving from China, Hong Kong, and Macau SAR, may be permitted to dock in any port of Bacolod City or any place that such vessels may be served under its territorial jurisdiction provided that the strict directives under DOH D.O No. 2020-0034 and DOH D.O No. 2020-0034-A shall be complied with.
Section 2 of the EO further stated that the hygienic practices and preventive sanitary measures shall be implemented at all times, to wit: no disembarkation of any crew of the subject vessels may be allowed any time; no embarkation or boarding of the subject vessels by any person shall be allowed at any time for whatever purpose or purposes, except for persons/ personnel specified in the following paragraph 2.3 or the persons/ personnel that may be allowed to embark/ board the vessel whether on anchorage or vessel-at-berth provided that quarantine clearance had already been accomplished with the free pratique duly issued by the Bureau of Quarantine and these persons upon boarding the vessel shall were protective gear at all times.