BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The City Legal Office Enforcement Unit assisted by the police, the military, and the market supervisors, will start enforcing the “no market pass, no entry” policy in the public markets.
Bacolod City Administrator Em Ang told DNX that the enforcement is now “ongoing”, as monitoring teams do the rounds to check on vendors and ensure that the Executive Order of the city on the implementation of the diagnostic test is properly implemented.
E.o. 66 is an order to conduct mandatory surveillance testing of vendors in the three major public markets (Central Market, Burgos market, and Libertad market) in Bacolod City.
The E.O. provides that a ticket system will be applied, where vendors and their co-workers willing to submit themselves for diagnostic test will be issued “Permission Ticket” or Market Pass to gain access to their stalls inside the markets, or be allowed to sell along the premises of the markets.
Should they be tested positive, they will be removed from their stalls and committed for quarantine/isolation under the city’s existing quarantine/isolation policies.
The E.O. also said that “those who refuse and continue to refuse to undergo the diagnostic test will not be issued “Permission Ticket” (or Market Pass) and their stalls/place of business shall be posted with notice “Under Process” (or In Process)”.
Vice-Mayor El Cid Familiar told DNX that there were vendors who continue to sell inside the markets despite the fact that they have not undergone swabbing, or surveillance testing.
This, he said, is in violation to what the E.O. on diagnostic testing which says that only those swabbed will be allowed to sell, or gain access to their stalls in the markets.
“It is unfair to those who have undergone swabbing, especially when they have a policy on ‘no swab, no pass, no entry’,” he said.
He also said that the swabbers are now overwhelmed by the tasks.
“There are awardees [stall owners] who wanted to be swabbed, but the swabbing team had to stop at 6 p.m.,” he said.
This is because the swab team is now overwhelmed by the sheer number of those who want tested, as they also have to change clothes every time they go to the toilet, or eat.
There are also talks of implementing the “one entrance, one exit” so that the vendors will be checked constantly, and only those with passes will be allowed access to their stalls.