BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Bacolod City Cong. Greg Gasataya has urged transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to establish rules strictly requiring all common carriers involved in inter-island transport of passengers to come up with a detailed seat plan for passengers for the entire trip.
Gasataya, in a House resolution, asked Tugade to “establish rules [that] strictly require all common carriers involved in inter-island transport of passengers by land, water, or air, to prepare and record a detailed seat plan of their passengers during the entire course of transit”.
This, the solon said, is to ensure “efficiency and accuracy of contact tracing in case a passenger or passengers is later on found positive for COVID-19”.
Gasataya, in his resolution, said there is still “a very high risk of infection of COVID-19” among the passengers while in transit despite the observance of physical distancing and wearing of face masks.
Manifests, he said, will make contact tracing easier in case one of the passengers turn out positive for the virus.
The congressman came up with a resolution with the downscaling of the city’s status from Enhanced Community Quarantine to General Community Quarantine.
Earlier, MARINA-6 regional director Jose Venancio Vero Jr. said the three passenger vessels plying Bacolod and Iloilo have agreed to suspend their operations until 31 May.
This was after Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia wrote a letter to the Maritime Industry Authority dated 15 May, urgently requesting to stop the resumption of operations of passenger vessels within areas under General Community Quarantine (GCQ), as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19.
