STAGGERED FLIGHTS. The province of Negros Oriental is asking the national government for a staggered arrival of returning residents via sweeper flights and commercial sea vessels. The request was made to allow health workers and front-liners enough breathing space to avoid burnout, said Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion on Monday (June 29, 2020). (PNA file photo courtesy of Provincial Tourism Unit)
DUMAGUETE CITY – The province of Negros Oriental through its Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is seeking the staggered arrival of sweeper flights ferrying returning residents here to avoid the burnout of its health workers.
Capitol Public Information Officer and spokesperson Bimbo Miraflor said the IATF-EID met on Monday (June 26) morning and agreed to pass a resolution asking the regional IATF to endorse their request to their national counterpart.
Earlier, Assistant Provincial Health Officer Dr. Liland Estacion said there is a need for the province’s health workers and the local government units (LGU) to take a breather from the successive arrivals of locally-stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs) via air and sea travel.
Estacion said that for three nights in a row, sweeper flights arrived at the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport mostly at around midnight.
“We are asking to stagger the return of these individuals by 30 persons per batch because the health workers should also rest, otherwise what will happen to the community if we no longer have them,” she said in the dialect.
Miraflor said sweeper flights from Manila arrived here Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening, apparently on a “hopping trip” from one area to another to drop off the LSIs and ROFs which is why they arrived at midnight.
Sometimes a passenger/cargo vessel also arrives at the city port during the early hours after midnight while front-liners are already exhausted having to move from one entry point to another, and processing and documenting the arrivals.
The province had earlier asked the airlines and the shipping lines ferrying these people to provide ahead of time a copy of their passenger manifests to allow the receiving LGUs to prepare and receive them.
In the event of a sweeper flight coming in at midnight, Miraflor said the passengers may have to stay overnight at the holding area at the Sidlakang Negros Village here until representatives of their respective LGUs fetch them. (PNA)
