BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
As the special flight for fully vaccinated individuals from Manila to Negros Occidental started, Provincial Inter Agency Task Force action officer Rayfrando Diaz yesterday said that the management of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) wants to resume operations between two Negros provinces.
Diaz said that the first special flight of Philippine Air Lines for vaccinated individuals on October 18 was fully occupied, and turned out to be successful.
But Diaz said that the provincial government wants as much as possible that fully vaccinated Negrenses be given priority in availing of it, while all vaccine identification cards with QR codes should be uploaded to the province’s Management Information System.
The PAL special flights for vaccinated individuals are scheduled every Monday and Friday, starting October 18 until November 29 this year.
Diaz said that the different local government units (LGUs) in the province have started uploading the data of all fully inoculated Negrenses to the province’s Management Information System (MIS).
Diaz said they will reveal the link of the province’s vaccination portal soon, pointing out the links would be given to the chief executives of the LGUs which in turn will be responsible for disseminating the link to their respective constituents.
Diaz explained they opted for the online vaccination portal as they figured out that the LGUs will have a very difficult time distributing the vaccination certificates.
As of October 19, Negros Occidental has already vaccinated 300,000 individuals or roughly 15 percent of their target 1.8 million vaccinees.
Diaz also revealed that there is a pending request from VTI, which manages the Ceres Liner passenger buses, to resume operations from Negros Oriental to Negros Occidental.
But he said they will wait for approval from the provincial government of Negros Oriental.
Fully vaccinated individuals are to be accepted in the land trip, while negative RT-PCR test results to be required to those unvaccinated, to be issued within 72 hours of travel.
Diaz said they will wait VTI to present an authority from Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, allowing them to resume operations.
It has to be both ways, he added. At the same time, Diaz also stressed that the pickup of passengers should be from point to point, and not along the road.*
