Bohol Island News Staff | Posted on June 19, 2020 at 12:23 p.m.
For Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap, the opening up of the tourism industry in Bohol should not be rushed as things should be taken into consideration including the setting-up of their own molecular laboratory here.
Yap bared this during an interview on Friday morning in the Network Briefing program of Presidential Communication Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar aired live over Radyo Pilipinas and on their Facebook page.
He revealed that the Bohol Provincial Government’s containerized mobile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory will become operational by July 15.
He is hopeful that by that time the PCR laboratory of Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Medical Center Hospital will also become operational too.
Earlier, the governor has already been vocal about having such laboratories in the province especially in the entry points like the seaports and the airport.
Yap emphasized that the putting up of these laboratories would somehow address the confidence rate of both locals and the tourists themselves.
“That visitor must believe that Bohol has good medical protocols and policies to protect the visitor,” he said.
“We know that this is a global pandemic… Siyempre natatakot din yung mga tao na tumanggap basta-basta (Of course the people here are also scared to accept anyone just like that),” he added.
Apart from establishing the laboratory, Yap added that this should be side by side with contact tracing protocols.
“Only if we can assure people that’s the only way we can bring back tourism,” he stated.
‘Travel Bubble’
Last month, the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced its plans in choosing Bohol as among the “new normal tourist destinations” in the country alongside Baguio City and Boracay.
In a report by Philippine News Agency published on June 11, DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat was quoted in saying that they are also considering the plan on coming up with the travel corridor or ‘travel bubble’ as a way to allow the reopening of Philippine destinations with zero coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases to foreign tourists from infection-free nations.
However, she emphasized that safety protocols must be in place first.
Puyat’s position was reechoed by Gov. Yap saying this is still something they need to study.
“We cannot partner with a city or a country na hindi rin maganda ang management nila ng COVID-19 (We cannot partner with a city or a country that has no good management of their COVID-19 cases),” he said.
For that to work, Yap added, both destinations would have to have similar state in terms of their COVID-19 situation.
“If the two share the same level of COVID statistics and maganda naman yung medical protocol nung dalawa nung kausap rin natin then, magdungan na so that they will go side by side,” he said.
NO RUSH
The tourism industry particularly suffered a big loss due to the pandemic.
While Yap understands that businesses needed to return, he highlighted other needs that also needed to be addressed including water, waste management, zoning, social distancing, and transportation.
“Can we assure everybody that the minimum health standards of all the establishments that will open can be maintained? So hanggang hindi maganda ang sagot diyan hindi natin masisiguro yan (So until there’s no good answer on that, we really cannot assure anything),” he said.
“Huwag po natin buksan ang Bohol ng pabigla-bigla. Delikado po yun (Let’s not rush the opening of Bohol. That’s dangerous),” he added.
