UNDER fire for allowing the entry of unvaccinated foreign travelers to the country beginning March 1, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has hit back at her detractors, saying it is the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases that allows this.
“Why am I allowing unvaccinated travelers to the Philippines? Hello, the IATF has been allowing unvaccinated travelers to the Philippines with their own resolution, only that it has been qualified. If you are unvaccinated, then you have to be quarantined for five days. So it’s not me that’s allowing. It’s the IATF,” Garcia said during a press conference at the Capitol Thursday, February 17, 2022.
Garcia said IATF resolutions allowed unvaccinated travelers, such as overseas Filipino workers (OFW), returning overseas Filipinos (ROF) “and even foreign spouses of Filipino citizens,” to enter the country.
Last February 9, Garcia issued Executive Order (EO) 3, series of 2022, allowing unvaccinated and partially vaccinated foreign nationals, whether from non-visa-required or visa-required countries, traveling to Cebu for business or leisure, entry starting March 1, if they present a negative RT-PCR test taken within 48 hours before departing from their country of origin.
Such passengers will also be subjected to a swab test on arrival. And they must observe quarantine in a facility until the release of the result of their second RT-PCR test taken on the fifth day of their quarantine.
Her order immediately drew responses from Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who said the IATF allows the entry, for leisure purposes, only of fully vaccinated foreign nationals; and Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, who said all local government units are mandated to follow IATF policies.
Garcia said it was the IATF that “lifted the quarantine period for fully vaccinated OFWs and ROFs, and added further, for the unvaccinated, they will still be quarantined for five days, whereupon they will be swabbed on the fifth day and with a negative result, they will then be allowed to continue their quarantine at home,” referring to IATF Resolution 159.
Issued on January 27, 2022, IATF Resolution 159 suspended the use of the color-coded risk classification for incoming travelers and shifted to the use of vaccination status as basis for travelers’ quarantine protocol.
Under this resolution, starting February 1, unvaccinated and partially vaccinated individuals must undergo “facility-based quarantine until the release of their negative RT-PCR test taken on the fifth day. After which, they shall be required to undergo home quarantine until their 14th day.”
Garcia said it was also the IATF that subsequently allowed from February 10, “the entry of foreign travelers from non-visa required countries, fully vaccinated,” referring to IATF Resolution 160-B.
“In that same resolution, they also allowed for the entry of those that would be holding, if a visa is required, 9(a) visas or EED (entry exemption document). And they say that if they are not vaccinated or they do not fulfill kadtong unsa klaseng (the requirement for the right kind of) vaccine, then they will be quarantined, again for five days--the same treatment we give to the unvaccinated ROFs and OFWs and even foreign spouses of Filipino citizens,” the governor said.
Under IATF Resolution 160-B, after non-compliant travelers quarantined in a facility get their negative result of the RT-PCR test taken on the fifth day, they are still required to undergo home quarantine until their 14th day.
Under Garcia’s EO 3, however, no home quarantine is required after the release of unvaccinated foreign nationals from facility-based quarantine.
Garcia asked why unvaccinated foreigners could not be allowed entry when unvaccinated ROFs and OFWs were allowed entry.
“Why a different set of rules? Are we differently wired as Filipinos, or returning Filipinos, or even as foreign spouses of Filipino citizens, as compared to others that are coming in, especially from non-visa countries? Or even from visa-required countries, that will be coming in to help us revive an already devastated economy, first of all because of those now proven-to-be-useless lockdowns, further restrictions of Covid-19? And remember, we were just unceremoniously visited by Typhoon Odette right before Christmas season... which wrought even further devastation to our economy,” the governor said. (CTL)