“THE Executive Order No. 53 of Mayor Evelio Leonardia did not violate any laws of not requiring the Safe, Swift and Smart (S-Pass) for the passengers who are travelling to Bacolod City.”
This was stressed by Bacolod City Councilor Renecito Novero, chair of Quarantine Centers Action Team, on Wednesday, November 23, 2021 in response to the pronouncement of Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz II that not requiring S-Pass for travelers bound for the city is illegal.
“If you say illegal, it means it’s against the law. So, if Diaz knows a law that was violated, I will ask him for a specification of that law that could possibly help, but if there’s nothing violated then, that could not be an illegal EO,” Novero said.
The EO of the mayor was also reviewed by the lawyers of the City Legal Office and it’s not illegal, the councilor pointed out.
Novero also cited that some local government units (LGUs) were also not requiring the S-Pass for fully vaccinated travelers.
On Saturday, November 20, 2021, some airline passengers bound for Bacolod City were reportedly refused boarding because of not having their S-Pass.
Diaz earlier said that the city’s EO is a violation of Resolution 101 of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
Under the resolution, the S-Pass is the mode wherein travelers are able to upload all of their documentation for proper recording like the vaccination cards and negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
"I don't think the EO is legal, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) should check it," Diaz said.
The city and province's current alert levels are only temporary and that it changes every two weeks, he added.
Novero, however, countered it saying that Resolution 101 is not a law.
“So I don’t think that there’s a violation to that (Resolution 101),” he said, adding that the provincial government should also respect the policy issued by the city government for the people of Bacolod.
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Executive Director Em Ang earlier said Diaz's move is a clear disrespect of the EO issued by Leonardia on November 14 after the IATF downgraded Bacolod's alert status from Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 2 since Covid-19 cases here had been on a steady decline.
EO No. 53 also no longer requires an S-Pass for fully-vaccinated city-bound passengers traveling by air, land or sea if their final destination is Bacolod.
"Our EO 53 would not have been concurred by Regional IATF chief and Regional Director Jovian Ingeniero if it were not in conformity with the NIATF policy," she added.*