Flight diversion ends; No new Palace order as of 8:30 p.m. Saturday

CEBU, Philippines —  The Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) is ready to accept international flights anew today, June 13, 2021, granting Malacañang will not extend the order to reroute these flights to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila.

“While waiting, we can declare that we are ready should there be no more extension,” said Atty. Glenn Napuli, officer-in-charge of MCIA, on Saturday, June 12.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, MCIA has not received an extension order from Malacañang.

Malacañang earlier diverted flights to NAIA to ensure that COVID-19 protocols of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) are “fully and seamlessly implemented.”

This after Cebu Province came up with its own policy for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) and returning overseas Filipinos (ROF) arriving at the MCIA.

Under this local policy, travelers will be allowed to proceed to their local government of destination and will undergo home quarantine there if they will test negative in the RT-PCR test. They will be tested again on the seventh day.

Meanwhile, IATF rules mandate travelers to quarantine for 10 days in a government facility and quarantine at home on the 10th to 14th day.

As it welcomes back international flights today, June 13, Napuli said MCIA will enforce the local policy.

“Cebu is united to stick to what we believe is right,” he said.

A flight from Singapore is expected at 2 p.m. while a flight from Korea is expected to at 10:30 p.m. Each flight will carry 150 passengers.

Napuli said there are 5,000 rooms at hotels where arriving OFWs and ROFs can stay while waiting for the result of their swab test at the airport.

“Ready na tanan… in place na tanan, ready for the new wave of international arrivals,” Napuli said.

In fact, with higher budget from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for payment for hotels for OFWs, Cebu have opened more rooms for isolation.

“Which means, we are more ready now than before,” Napuli said.

In relation to this, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino said he will get the help of the private sector in Cebu to raise funds to purchase test kits after Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire announced that DOH will no longer conduct swab tests for free for incoming ROFs or OFWs at MCIA.

“He would be organizing the private sector in order to raise the funds and I said I would also put in my own personal funds to show that we Cebuanos can take care of our own,” said Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.

Assistance

Meanwhile, Cebu is looking at ways to help arriving ROFs in the event flights will continue to be diverted to Manila.

Garcia convened representatives of government agencies, including the IATF in Region 7, as well as the private sector, to discuss the possibility of shouldering their plane tickets from Manila to Cebu.

“We had initially discussed this with Dr. Yango, Cebu City acting Mayor Mike Rama also mentioned this, that we could possibly extend assistance to the ROFs that we’ll need to shell out extra funds for the ticket coming from Manila to Cebu,” Garcia said.

She said Cebu Province and Cebu City will enter into a possible arrangement with airlines and the Bureau of Quarantine in flying these OFWs and ROFs to the province.

OFWs will not be covered by the assistance as OWWA will shoulder the cost of their domestic sweeper flights and quarantine hotels.

Gordon

In a related development, Senator Richard Gordon released a statement Saturday lauding Cebu’s “own initiative, cognizant of the Filipino culture of family visits” in cutting quarantine time at facilities short but also said he does not recommend the swab-upon-arrival policy as it is not recommended by health experts and not aligned with the national policy.

Proposing a compromise of sorts, Gordon said a seven-day quarantine at a government facility should be enough and the OFWs and ROFs will be tested after this period.

If found negative, they can complete the 14-day quarantine at home, while those found positive will undergo the standard protocols of isolation and/or treatment.

Gordon also suggests a gradual opening of bubble tourism sites to open the economy with proper protocols in place, and welcomes the easing of protocols for incoming passengers who have completed their vaccination that does away with a swab test upon arrival, provided the vaccination can be verified officially in the country where it was administered. - Dheif Daniel F. Yunting, USC Intern, JMO (FREEMAN)