Mayor opens Puerto Galera to foreign, local tourists

PUERTO GALERA: Tourists, both local and foreign, are now welcome to visit this popular coastal town in Mindoro Oriental, known for its white beaches and diving spots.

Puerto Galera Mayor Rocky Ilagan has issued an executive order to push through the re-opening of the resort town with a provision that all visitors must adhere to the minimum health standards required by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).

The mayor’s order, however, was a direct defiance to the directive of the provincial governor to hold in abeyance the opening of the town to tourists.

Ilagan gathered the stakeholders of Puerto Galera at Badladz Beach Resort in Barangay Tabinay on Tuesday to discuss the letter of Gov. Humerlito Dolor that bars them from opening the resorts on March 9.

The mayor said consultation with the stakeholders led to his decision to push through with the opening of the tourism industry in Puerto Galera.

Ilagan wrote a letter on March 1 to seek concurrence from the governor to his plan to re-open the resorts to tourists.

The governor, however, replied on March 8 and said that the removal of the requirement for a negative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) on arriving tourists prodded him to defer his decision to either allow or not the re-opening of the resorts. He also asked Ilagan to attend a dialogue scheduled Wednesday, March 10.

Puerto Galera Association of Barangay (village) Captains president Mario Reyes of Barangay. Sto. Niño, in his message to other stakeholders, said more than a year of the lockdown brought by the pandemic caused immeasurable sufferings to the people of the town and it is high time that the tourism industry be revived.

“The IATF had asked local governments to have common requirements to all travelers, locally stranded individuals (LSIs), Authorized Person Outside Residence (APOR) and tourists. Why now that the provincial government is setting this barrier for our tourism industry,” Ilagan said.

The executive order mandates that ports in Barangay Balatero operated by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), Muelle in Barangay Poblacion and Barangay Villaflor bordering the other towns of Oriental Mindoro would be opened to tourists and personnel would be stationed to ensure that minimum health standards are observed.

“My decision to open Puerto Galera stands. With due respect to the governor, but I cannot forsake the interests of my people,” Ilagan declared.