THE Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) of Bacolod City urged the Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI) to ensure that bus passengers should have negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results once their inter-provincial trips will resume.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, deputy for medical data and analysis of EOC-TF, on Thursday, March 18, 2021, said Bacolod City is still requiring the negative RT-PCR test results for travelers coming from outside Western Visayas entering the city.
“If you are coming from Dumaguete City, you should present a negative RT-PCR test since Dumaguete is not part of the Western Visayas. You should register via the S-Pass System,” he said.
He added if passengers who are coming outside Western Visayas fail to present negative RT-PCR test results, VTI should disallow the passengers from traveling to Bacolod City.
Sorongon said VTI should strictly enforce health protocols and set its own monitoring to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“We are helping our business sectors to move forward, but we should do it slowly. Let us be proactive, we should not be complacent because Covid is still everywhere,” Sorongon said.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson also wanted assurance from VTI of their compliance to his executive order about the new health protocols for travelers.
Lacson said the land trips of VTI, which manages the Ceres Liner passenger buses from Negros Occidental to neighboring provinces and islands, may resume this month if they can implement the executive order he issued requiring negative Covid-19 test results, among others, from its passengers.
"They have to convince us that they can actually monitor the passengers that they are carrying," Lacson said.
He said he will not allow airlines, shipping companies and land transportation to be the carrier of Covid-19 passengers.
"They will just have to assure us that they can manage this," he said.
Lacson's EO 21-18 seeks for the implementation of National Inter-Agency Task Force's Resolution 101, which calls for uniform travel protocols for all local government units, with the inclusion of requiring travelers of negative RT-PCR test results, 72 hours prior to their arrival in Negros.
VTI requested an endorsement letter of support from Lacson for its application to the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board for Special Permits, allowing them to resume operations outside Negros Occidental. Travelers were allowed to enter the province as long as they have a negative RT-PCR test result and are registered to the S-Pass and Stay Safe Phils app system for contact tracing purposes.
VTI has wanted to resume trips from Bacolod City to Cebu, Dumaguete City, Canlaon City, Zamboanga and its new route, Sipalay City to Cebu, with a total of 16 trips.
"The burden is now with VTI to assure us that they can really manage, or they can secure that all their passengers are not carriers of Covid-19," Lacson said.
Capitol is also pushing for no pick-up or unloading of passengers along the way and that boarding and unloading of passengers should be at designated bus terminals.
Capitol health personnel will also be deployed in two VTI bus terminals in Bacolod City to ensure compliance with requirements set upon passengers by the provincial government of Negros Occidental.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz earlier said the proposed bus trips of VTI only needed the approval of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, who will issue the letter of no objection, which is required so that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board will grant the permit for the bus firm's proposed trip schedules and details.