Presidential Communications Operation Office Secretary Martin M. Andanar (left) and Samal City Mayor Al David Uy during the Laging Handa Network Briefing on Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. (Screenshot grabbed from PTV)
DAVAO CITY – The Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos) is set to open some of its tourism activities such as island hopping, scuba diving, and aqua sports activities on September 16.
During Monday's "Laging Handa" network briefing with Presidential Communications Operation Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin M. Andanar, Igacos Mayor Al David Uy said the local government has decided to gradually open the island city's tourism activities after initially opening them since last month.
“Starting the first week of August, we opened the big resorts but we have not allowed other activities like scuba diving, trekking, island hopping. We also started opening up our tourism areas in Samal gradually last August,” he said.
Uy added that the local government unit is allowing tourists at 50 percent of the capacity of the resort and they also practice 'no booking, no entry policy' in all resorts," Uy said.
To streamline the identification of tourists for contact tracing purposes, Uy said the local government created a hotline to process bookings for resorts wherein each individual is assigned a QR code."
Uy assured they will adhere to the rules set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) "to ensure the safety of our tourists."
The mayor also reminded tourists that the city's liquor ban and 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew remain in effect, and that ferry boats and bancas going to the island "are only up to 9 p.m."
Should Mayor Sara Z. Duterte lift the liquor ban on October, Uy said the island-city will follow as well.
“In Samal, we cater to tourists from the Davao Region as long as they go through the prescribed process. Our isolation facilities are ready as well as our testing kits. This is what we're doing to strengthen contact tracing, through the QR code and monitoring in our barangays,” he said.
"This is what's important right now, especially in LGUs (local government units) that are flooded by tourists. Contact tracing is really important, as well as monitoring the tourists that are going in and out of our respective LGUs," Uy added. (PNA)
