(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Cebu government to comply with the national government’s required COVID-19 testing of all passengers from abroad seven days after arrival in the country.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the announcement after the memorandum issued by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea diverting all Cebu-bound international flights to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport lapsed on June 12.
Medialdea’s memorandum issued on May 27 came after Cebu went on to test international travelers upon arrival in the province, instead of on the seventh day of their quarantine of ten days in a facility, as contained in the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Resolution 116-A.
Medialdea’s memo was supposed to be in effect until June 5, but was extended until June 12.
Under the national government-mandated COVID-19 protocol, each traveler from abroad shall remain in quarantine at home even after the ten-day quarantine.
In staying away from the approach, the Cebu provincial government had said the policy was “repressive.”
“The extension [of the diversion of flights to NAIA] last week was made to prepare for this implementation [of IATF] guidelines,” Roque said.
