THE conflict over the arrival protocols for international passengers continues, with Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia issuing an executive order reminding those who defy the local law on arriving Filipinos that they would face criminal and administrative charges.
Garcia’s Executive Order 23, issued on June 21, 2021, reminds the agencies that implement the protocols that the amended Provincial Ordinance 2021-04, which forms the legal basis for Cebu’s arrival policy, “is still an existing and valid law” and “non-compliance...will merit the filing of criminal and administrative cases against violators.”
“I called all of them to remind them that this is still a government of laws and not of men and as such, in Cebu, there is an existing ordinance which clearly spells out the swab on arrival protocol and if found negative within two or three days, may go home to continue their quarantine at home,” Garcia announced in a press conference Monday afternoon, June 21.
“Holding them beyond the two- or three-day period when there is an existing law in the Province of Cebu could expose them to possible charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention as well as resistance and disobedience to a person in authority or agents of such person,” she added.
The EO is directed at the Department of Health, Bureau of Quarantine, Department of Tourism (DOT), Philippine National Police, Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) and other concerned agencies.