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Bohol strictly regulates, manages LSI arrivals
By MINERVA BC NEWMAN

TAGBILARAN CITY – Bohol governor Arthur Yap warned “illegal” entry of locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who return home without prior coordination with their mayors or local government units (LGUs) as the province strictly manages and regulates their arrivals based on available local quarantine facilities.

Yap called it a policy of 'management arrival' as his response to the LSI program established by the national inter-agency task force (IATF).  The entry of LSIs will continue but as regulated based on available LGU quarantine facilities.

“It is important that LSIs must coordinate with their mayors or LGUs through the designated focal persons since they directly know the capacity of their quarantine facilities and available rooms in a given time.  As of June 30, Bohol exceeded by 560 percent its target number of returned LSIs for the month,” Yap said.

In an emergency management meeting in May, Yap said the target was to receive an initial of 1,000 LSIs by the whole month but, according to Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez the Technical Working Group spokesperson that there were already 6,654 LSIs who had returned to their respective towns as of June 30.

Yap noted that most mayors opposed the option of home quarantine for the LSIs including the current 21 active COVID-19 cases in Bohol.  The newest confirmed positive cases as of June 4 were two LSIs from Loboc town who were already isolated at the LGU facility.

Those LSIs will still be transferred to the LGU-based quarantine facilities apart from quarantine violation charges while their family members are locked down, he added.

Yap encouraged the mayors to find additional quarantine facilities and the barangay captains to check regularly for any newly-arrived persons in their areas.

He bared that several thousands more Boholanos elsewhere in the country have intimated to come home including those who have lost jobs or have been economically dislocated in Philippine places worst or most hit by the pandemic.

Yap asked Department of Interior and Local Government ((DILG) Sec. Eduardo Año not to suspend the LSI program but to gradually transport of LSIs to their places of origin as in the cases of Bohol which
Año positively replied with the crisp, "Okay Gov. Yap, very reasonable."

The LSIs within Central Visayas who wish to come home to Bohol are allowed for now when they signify and coordinate with the LGUs, Yap clarified that there is no truth to information that he stopped the transport of the LSIs from the Ouano wharf in Mandaue City to Tagbilaran City.

Yap added that in one instance, the LSIs gathered at theOuano wharf were not allowed to board a Lite Shipping vessel bound for Bohol because it carried flammable goods, which might pose danger to human cargoes.

The governor went on that the LSIs from Cebu province can return to Bohol, except those from Cebu City which is nationally considered as an emerging epicenter of COVID-19.

Yap maintained that the agreement of the IATF and DILG to his managed arrival policy still depends on the LSIs' compliance with the required quarantine certification and COVID-19 Shield pass or travel authority issued by the PNP.

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