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Travel restrictions up in Aklan, Capiz provinces

By Gail Momblan

July 3, 2020, 4:12 pm

<p><strong>TRAVEL RESTRICTION</strong>. The photo shows the executive orders passed by the provinces of Aklan (left) and Capiz on Thursday (July 2, 2020) imposing travel restrictions against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Both provinces are under modified general community quarantine until July 15. <em>(Photos courtesy of Gov. Florencio Miraflores and Capiz Kabalaka Information Center)</em></p>

TRAVEL RESTRICTION. The photo shows the executive orders passed by the provinces of Aklan (left) and Capiz on Thursday (July 2, 2020) imposing travel restrictions against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Both provinces are under modified general community quarantine until July 15. (Photos courtesy of Gov. Florencio Miraflores and Capiz Kabalaka Information Center)

ILOILO CITY – The provinces of Aklan and Capiz are implementing the management and regulation of the travel of persons in their provincial borders to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores has signed on Thursday and released on Friday an executive order which imposes travel management in Aklan under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

The said order only allows Aklanons, or residents of the province; and the delivery of essential goods and commodities into the province.

Authorized Persons Outside Residence (APOR), which include government officials, health emergency personnel, persons traveling for humanitarian reasons, persons granted passage to the airport for travel abroad, and non-Aklanon entering the province for work will also be allowed to cross Aklan borders.

They will be required to present government-issued Identification Card and other documents for their profiling, the governor said.

Also allowed to travel into the province are returning Overseas Filipinos (ROFs) that have secured their travel authority from the Joint Task Force Covid-19 Shield, a negative RT-PCR (reverse transcript-polymerase chain reaction) result, and a quarantine certification from the Bureau of Quarantine.

Aklan has adopted the pronouncement of National Task Force chairperson Delfin Lorenzana suspending the transportation of LSIs to Regions 6 and 8, Cebu City, and Cebu province.

“Therefore, transportation of LSIs into the province of Aklan as well as those passing through the province by any means of transportation is likewise suspended,” Miraflores said.

The suspension of LSI transportation to Aklan exempts those coming from Western Visayas who have secured a medical certificate and a travel authority from the police.

Those who will travel outside Aklan will not be restricted, Miraflores said.

Aklan was placed under MGCQ from July 1 to July 15, as announced by President Rodrigo Duterte in an address to the nation last June 30.

Based on the Department of Health-Center for Health Development (DOH-CHD) 6 on Wednesday, Aklan has recorded six total confirmed Covid-19 cases, and its five RFOs and LSIs were also infected.

Capiz province, meanwhile, gave its residents outside the province until July 5 to return to Capiz.

Capiz residents who will fail to enter the provincial border on the given date will be considered LSIs, based on the executive order 20-C signed by Governor Esteban Contreras on Thursday.

“The provincial government of Capiz deems it necessary to strengthen and strictly secure its borders to further prevent the spread and transmission of Covid-19 cases,” Contreras said.

A special quarantine pass will be issued to persons aged 60 and older, and whose ages are below 21 for them to be allowed outside the residence for essential needs.

Contreras said cargo vehicles carrying essential goods and products can also be provided with the special quarantine pass provided that the driver and helpers of the cargo vehicles wear facemasks and observe safe physical distancing.

Vehicles carrying essential goods to the province will also be required, among others, with a medical certificate stating that the persons are neither suspect, probable, or confirmed Covid-19 cases.

ROFs returning to Capiz as organized by the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) can also be granted the special quarantine pass.

Capiz province is also placed under MGCQ until July 15, with six Covid-19 cases and two ROFs infected as of Thursday.

Last July 1, Iloilo province has also imposed its travel restrictions. (PNA)


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