WORKERS NOT REQUIRED TO GET PNP TRAVEL PASS
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday clarified that locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning Overseas Filipinos (ROFs) are required to get travel permits from the Philippine National Police (PNP), but employees reporting back to work just need to present their company identification cards (IDs) or certificates of employment.
DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año issued the statement as more companies were allowed to open business with the relaxed quarantine protocols.
The DILG 24/7 Emergency Operations Center and DILG Philippines official social media account were flooded with queries about travel passes.
Año also noted that the DILG has also been receiving feedbacks from its Regional and Field Offices that workers endured very long queues just to get travel authority before they can report back to work.
He cited an incident in Rodriguez, Rizal “where residents endured two days of very long queues just to get travel passes so they can report back to work in Metro Manila’’.
With this incident, Año said that the DILG has already coordinated with the Rizal LGUs “to correct this wrong practice and provide them with guidance on this matter’’.
He stressed that company IDs or certificates of employment will serve as their travel authority.
According to him, the security personnel on duty have a list of allowed industries to operate which will be matched with the company ID presented by the employees to be allowed passage through security points.
Among the list of industries allowed to operate during the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) and general community quarantine (GCQ) are food and agriculture, manufacturing, utilities, banks and money-transfer agencies.
The government is studying whether to allow dine-in in restaurants and the reopening of barbershops and beauty salons as long as strict quarantine protocols are observed.
For stranded individuals and ROFs, DILG Spokesperson and Undersecretary Jonathan E. Malaya said they should first secure their travel authority from their local police station and a medical clearance from the city/ municipal health office before being allowed to go back to their hometown.
“Upon the directive of Secretary Año, the PNP has set up help desks in all police stations across the country to assist all stranded individuals. You just need to submit your medical clearance from the City/Municipal Health Office as supporting document,” Malaya said.
Malaya also clarified that all returning OFWs who tested negative and have the test results with them no longer need to be quarantined in the LGU of destination.
“Only in cases where the OFW has incomplete documents should he/she be quarantined while waiting for the results. But the results are already on-line so there shouldn’t be a problem anymore,” he added.