THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Wednesday said it has amended the protocols for the Luzon-wide community quarantine, including the relaxation of procedures for aviation and maritime transport.
In an advisory, the agency said the 72-hour window for international flights has been lifted. This means that any person, except Filipinos flying out for tourism purposes, will be allowed to fly out of the airports in Luzon at any time.
In a separate advisory, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said it has recalled its earlier memo requiring cargo owners and logistics service providers to secure a cargo entry/withdrawal permits to facilitate cargo movements.
This, according to PPA General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago, allows cargo owners to withdraw or deposit cargo normally, “as if there is no enhanced community quarantine.”
“The new guidelines will only require the presentation of any of the existing transport documents such as bill of lading, waybills or any related documents to the concerned inspecting/validating officers and which shall serve as their entry/exit documents,” he said.
He noted, however, that the agency will make a regular review of the memorandum in order to calibrate certain provisions of the memorandum should the need arise.
“This will guarantee the unhampered movement of cargo in and out of the ports of Manila, thus, ensuring uninterrupted domestic supply chain despite the 30-day enhanced community quarantine,” Santiago said.
Furthermore, crew members of ships will not be allowed to disembark, while passenger services of ships are still suspended.
Bus deployment for health workers
In another development, the transportation department has started deploying buses to ferry frontline health workers to their hospitals. This has been an issue for about two days, with one doctor telling the BusinessMirror that he had to walk from his home in Pasig City to his hospital in Bonifacio Global City.
As of Wednesday 5:45 p.m., 61 buses have been deployed at different staging areas in the northern, eastern, western, and souther corridors of Metro Manila.
The buses were from private bus companies such as HM Transit, San Agustin, MetroExpress, RRCG, Precious Grace, Ceres, and automotive company Foton.
The free bus service, subject to containment, social distancing, and health check protocols, will serve over public and private hospitals in total. These health facilities are spread throughout Metro Manila.