DOT-TPB expanding subsidized Covid testing Aklan gov asks for more lenient health protocols

THE Department of Tourism (DOT) is expanding its subsidized Covid-19 testing program in a bid to boost domestic tourism in the country.

In an interview with the Businessmirror, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said she received a request recently from Iloilo Mayor Jerry Treñas to look into the possibility of the DOT subsidizing RT-PCR tests in his city. “We’ll evaluate it first,” she said.

Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Chief Operating Officer Ma. Anthonette C. Velasco-allones said Treñas’s request will allow “their local tourists to cross to Boracay Island and elsewhere that are open.”

She added, they are “just discussing the pricing” of the RT-PCR tests in Iloilo, but in general, “We are pursuing an expanded subsidy [program] outside of the National Capital Region [NCR].”

TPB, the marketing arm of the DOT, is finalizing a partnership with the JB Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital in San Fernando, Pampanga, for another subsidized testing project. With TPB paying for half of the cost of the RT-PCR tests, domestic tourists from San Fernando and its nearby environs will only have to pay P750, said Allones.

TPB recently provided some P19 million to the University of the Philippines-philippine General Hospital in Manila, and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, to subsidize the cost of RT-PCR tests by domestic tourists. Thus, they only pay P900 and P750 per person, respectively.

AS this developed, the provincial government of Aklan is looking at easing entry requirements in Boracay Island for tourists from Western Visayas.

In a letter to the Boracay Interagency Task Force led by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, and co-chairs Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año and Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat dated January 5, 2021, Aklan Gov. Florencio T. Miraflores said, “With the mitigating measures being implemented by the Provincial Government through the Aklan.

Quick Response (Akquire) for Tracing and Monitoring or “QR” Code System, the mass testing of all tourism-related workers being implemented now, and the placing of all the provinces and cities in Western Visayas [under modified general community quarantine], may I therefore request, in behalf of the Tumandoks of Boracay Island (the most affected of this pandemic), the tourism workers and investors, to do away with the requirement of a negative RT-PCR test result to all incoming tourists coming from Western Visayas.”

He noted that when Boracay was reopened to Western Visayas tourists in June 2020, no negative RT-PCR was required for entry. Also, he said, “because of the manageable number of positive cases in the whole of Aklan, it remains under MGCQ.”

With the entire Western Visayas now under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) status, government’s guidelines now allow the “intrazonal movement of non-apors [non-authorized persons outside the residence, including tourists] for any purpose…across the area without documentary requirements,” added Miraflores in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Businessmirror.

Mass testing ongoing

MUNICIPAL data show that of the 27,117 tourists who arrived in Boracay from June to December 2020, the largest group came from NCR at 16,039; followed by 6,858 from Aklan; 3,004 from Iloilo province; 578 from Capiz; 342 from Antique; 170 from Negros Occidental, and 19 from Negros Oriental.

The governor also reported that from December 22 to 29, 2020, the local government tested 1,619 employees of 28 hotels on the island, and at the Ciriaco Tirol Hospital for those establishments with less than 10 workers. He added that mass testing of the remaining tourism workers on the island will be conducted from January 18 to 22, 2021.

Earlier, Romulo-puyat lost her cool at Miraflores for failing to conduct Covid-19 tests among the island’s tourism workers before the holiday season set in, following reports that an employee of Discovery Shores Boracay was found to be Covid-positive. DOT had downloaded the funds for testing to the local government in November 19. (See, “DOT hits Aklan failure to test Boracay workers,” in the Businessmirror, December 23, 2020.)